POETRY: GABRIELLE DROLET

EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE ICEBERG

An iceberg used to mean
mystery.
 
                               To be
                               like an iceberg
                               was to have
                               so much 
                               beneath
                               the surface. To go
                               on. Now, an iceberg means
 
impermanence. To melt into
something. To disappear into your
body. To run into an old friend
at the market and be told
you’ve changed. Now, an iceberg
 
                              is something you can argue.
                              Like politics or history. Like
                              memory. How old were you
                              when you saw the iceberg?
                              Your mother  says eleven.
                              You say fourteen. You stood
                              on the shore in PEI, your hands
                              and breath both frozen. A mass of ice
                              bigger than your house, your school.
                              If only ten percent of an iceberg
                              floats above the surface, what does
                              that mean for the other ninety? Back then,
                              an iceberg meant mystery— a second truth
                              below the water. Now, both truths
                              are disputable.

​Gabrielle Drolet is a poet and journalist based in London, ON. Her work, which focuses on politics and queer identity, has been published in The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Teen Vogue, VICE, and more. She's currently completing her undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing at Western University.