Offerings

We get the ATV stuck 
in the mud again. Erosion beats  

the tundra free 
from thawing ice. We are four women  

doing northern government work. We are told  
about unpredictable ground

the tear of the sea
against shoreline. The collapse of cliffs  

by warming winds. Wolf tracks cluster  
voluptuous in black volcanic sands. We are warned  
 
about their numbers
now that no one hunts them anymore. Brown bear prints
 
appear earlier
the land warming faster. We comb the beaches. Whale vertebrae  
 
the size of our heads. Glass balls floated  
from Japan. We go from household to household. I explain permits
 
regulations. Encourage the tally of fish  
a season’s worth of food
 
noted and sent to the State. An elder offers us smoked king  
from a jar stacked next to others. Thick strips  

of crimson. The fat
like candy melts in our mouths. We are told salmon

have plummeted
the animals are changing. How something that once was

is no longer. The elder’s fingers set net  
knots. Twist until they resemble

her knuckles. Her daughter shows me  
Facebook photos of her first caribou. Her granddaughter

gazes at her iPhone, smears white fish  
with seal oil. She offers us a taste.