by Coleman Glenn

“For the first time in the more than 100 years that the National Geographic Society has mapped
the world’s oceans, it will recognize five of them. The organization announced this week that it
will recognize the Southern Ocean, a body of water that encircles Antarctica, as the world’s fifth.”
—The Washington Post

Swirling clockwise, in a motion
Coriolis-forced, this ocean
never stops its eastward rushin’,
unaware of the discussion
that will lead to its promotion—

quite unlike (despite a notion
widely held, which experts, though, shun)
southern loos that AREN’T, when flushin’,
swirling clockwise.

Will its isles (I may be gauche in
asking), due to our devotion
to our fossil fuels, grow lush in
time to see, in repercussion,
ice-melt send us (such commotion!)
swirling clockwise?