Windigo



A solitary traveler,
Abroad on snowshoes with his team,
Stops to crack the ice and take
A drink from a still flowing stream.

The wintry sun slants toward the west,
Evening falls on forest and lake.
From out the sylvan depths he hears
A heavy tread, a spruce limb break.

The lead dog sniffs the air and snarls,
The others, still in harness rise.
The willows part and there he stands,
A giant, murder in his eyes.

Gaunt and haggard, forest-tall,
Icicles hang from arms out-stretched,
Windigo with heart of ice
Clasps the traveler to his chest.

The dogs run off along the trail,
Though still in traces running fast.
The bloody stains upon the snow
Bear witness to the brute's repast.

But though he's gorged on human flesh
Windigo can never feel
His appetite is satisfied,
However big the gruesome meal.

He grows commensurate to the feast,
Gaunt and skeletal as before.
His head above the treetops now,
Still ravenous to his very core.


Now GDP growth at 3%
Is good, but not as good as 4.
Another mountain's worth of coal!
And lithium, and iron ore.

More plastic things are what we need,
And hydro power for the mills,
(An un-dammed river's such a waste),
And lakes of oil, ignore the spills.

These miracles of chemistry,
Alloys, polymers and glass,
Use them once, then toss away,
Excrescence on the roadside grass.

Fell the forests, empty the seas
Of all that breathe and swim and crawl.
We've grown so large, is that enough?
Not yet, we haven't killed them all.

Enormous! Are we sated yet?
No.  Industry is not so clever.
Our modern windigo's awful maw
Remains as ravenous as ever.

About this poem

Inspired by the Algonquin legends of the windigo, the ice monster of the northern forests. He is the embodiment of winter, cold, darkness, ice and hunger. His hunger is never satisfied because he grows ever larger in proportion to what he eats, which strikes me as an appropriate metaphor for the modern economy.

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Written on April 23, 2022

Submitted by dogojim3 on May 25, 2022

Modified on April 22, 2023

1:42 min read
80

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCB DCXC XEXE FXXD XXXD XGXG XHXH XXXH XIXI XJXJ XFXF XAXA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,591
Words 333
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Jim Gardiner

Retired biochemist, first-time poet. more…

All Jim Gardiner poems | Jim Gardiner Books

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1 Comment
  • DougHaberman
    I like the symbolism of this ogre. Making him stand for the voraciousness of industry and the price we pay. Very well thought out poem and nicely put together.
    LikeReply1 year ago

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"Windigo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/129517/windigo>.

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