Between the Freezes

The ice has come and gone more times than anyone counted A mile thick over cities that hadn't been founded Then it melts, and the valleys go green for a while And something walks through that hasn't walked in a while

We're living in the gap, the warm room between the freezes A window that opens, however long it pleases Every summer you've known, every crop that grew Happened in a pause the planet's taken a few times through

Twenty thousand years since the last big ice Woolly mammoths wading through a world gone white Then the thaw came slow, the glaciers pulled back their hand And forests found their footing, and people found the land

We're living in the gap, the warm room between the freezes It isn't forever, but it's long enough it eases Into feeling permanent, into feeling like home Even though it's a pause in a rhythm this old

The wobble in the tilt, the stretch in the orbit's shape Slow math written in starlight that the ice ages trace Nothing about this warmth was promised or was owed It's a season, like any season, just longer than most we know

We're living in the gap, the warm room between the freezes Hold it a little gentler, knowing what it means is Borrowed time from a colder rhythm underneath Grateful for the green, grateful for the gap beneath