Pilitak

The agéd Eskimo, once "sangilak, " the strongest of them all, prepares to die. Today he will not shield a slanted eye, nor starving in the evening stagger back. Having fought a bear and years of cold, fresh salmon never leave his fingertips, and caribou blood never parts his lips. And yet, he's lost his balance and his hold. He's "pilitak, " of help, but little use. So he lies on a bed of tundra ice, awaiting "kadzait, " wandering wolves, his eyes blind in the twilight like those of a moose. Slow, pleasant, death will come at six or seven in the wake of a fierce blizzard storm, (hypothermia and crystal form) , and it will be all he will know of heaven.