Straight
off the red eye from Antarctica
did you
know that at 40
below you cannot
think straight cannot
make the link - the link for days
your body stinks until you
take a snow bath but you’re always a blink away from
frostbite even in the tent you cut your
clothes off - and
they’re airlifted (eventually)
frozen in a case
lined with zinc so the
pilot is saved the rank
animal smell and when
you get home you need
four baths to soak the muck out and you’re
in the bath with a
glass of wine thinking
of the time you couldn’t
think and were on the
brink of a
fantastic discovery that sadly
didn’t happen but
knowing that there even where
you can’t think a square
of chocolate saved by a
friend and
brought to you in the
middle of the night as you are
drilling something
thrilling in the snowfield is frinking marvellous is why you
live Liz Callingham |