I Once Was King

I am Nanook, I once was king.
Across the vast, white plains of snow and ice, my soul took wing.
A frozen kingdom, it was my joy, it was my home.
In the shimmering blue of the ocean's deep my heart would sing
With the dazzle of the sun glancing from the ice and dancing on the foam.
The night sky bloomed with flickering lights of brilliant hue,
 The stars seemed close enough to feel their lambent glow,
I felt that I could reach aloft and capture one or two.
All creatures heard me roar and feared my voice and I was lord of all.
I enjoyed the bounty of my world and I rejoiced
And thought it was eternal. How could I know my days were few?
My icy realm began to crack and each day the fissures grew.
A glacial kingdom built on water cannot survive and so I knew
The end would come and though we struggled to endure,
 The waters claimed us one by one.
I looked to you for our salvation, for did you not effect our end ?
You did not rise to my expectation but proved, instead, you were not friends.
And did not try to resist temptation to satisfy your selfish wants,
Nor care about our preservation....and so we die, while you live on.
Some day, not far away, I'll be a bygone image in a book,
But I was here; I lived and breathed. I once was king.
I am...Nanook.


The Genie

The Inuit Eskimo name for the Polar Bear is "Nanuk" or "Nanook", meaning "an animal worthy of great respect." (Some versions say "Master or King of Bears") While in their poetry, the Inuit word they use for Polar Bear is, "Pihoqahiak", meaning "the ever-wandering one".