The Coldest War, by Alice Hong

You were opened unwillingly,

melted away, in time.

You never knew

what I meant when I said myself.

Perhaps you still don’t.

Shattered ice crystals,

an endless, hollow field of white,

and the creatures that danced across it:

that was your whole world.

But change had already begun.

Somewhere,

from a place you never knew,

the very life you sustained

was quietly melting you.

Mother. Tool. Resource. Opportunity.

You don’t know what you are to them.

You have no idea.