Once an arctic outpost battered by subzero blizzards
Iqaluit is now a bustling hub of circumpolar commerce,
due mostly to the weekly ferry link with Murmansk,
an affordable odyssey not without its exciting moments,
considering the remnant pack ice off Ellesmere Island,
or those marauding subs, formerly under US registry,
which the pan-arctic naval center tracks tenaciously.
Likewise that irksome layover scheduled for Spitsbergen
where the coal miners oft succumb to boisterousness
at the glimpse of our lady passengers traipsing down
the gangplank, accompanied though they are by topnotch
Russian ex-servicemen uniformed as ordinary stewards.
Now mostly ice-free, the circumpolar economic zone
offers boundless opportunities for southern investors
to relocate their faltering enterprise to an environment
where radioactivity should be of little concern to those
with hardy constitutions. Also, for persons habituated
to pre-war diets we offer a patented greenhouse design
featuring genetically improved flora guaranteed to rid
the slumping permafrost of toxic metals while providing
plentiful vegetable matter for the discriminating palate.
First to note on the approach to Murmansk are the many
derricks that line the bustling harbour. Next, the steeple
of a stave church. At long last, our quaint customs shed.
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