What Does a Petrified Turtle Symbolize?

Winter Turtle at Northwood Meadows Park
CC Jean Stimmell: 3/1/16

Talking to Turtle just as I found him – neither posed nor photoshopped –

basking on his favorite rock, though summer has long passed.

Oh Turtle, why do you stand frozen

above the ice-covered waters?

Why have not you made your seasonal return

to restore yourself in the warm, muddy depths?

What do you symbolize? What do you represent

in these perilous times of global upheaval

and climate distress?