Poetry by Joli Huelskamp
We exchange annoyed glances
as the noisy school groups jostle us
on their rush through the Shackleton exhibit.
We read the signage; they don’t.
We’re interested; they’re bored.
Except one little boy, standing rapt before a video on ice.
He’s not distracted by the tiny James Caird,
or by the haunting photo of Crean with the ill-fated sled dogs.
No, he’s fascinated by ice, how it forms, flows, breaks apart.
We exchange approving smiles, gratified that at least he—
“C’mon, Ernie,” barks the teacher, pulling him away,
“it’s time to go see the dinosaurs.”
Joli Huelskamp lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She won second place in the Knoxville Writers Guild 2025 Short Fiction Contest. Her work has been published in Bewildering Stories.
