The Weather Underground

There are arctic ground squirrels in Alaska

Who spend eight months out of the year

In the frozen earth

Under the snow 

They eat nothing

Their heart rate slows to conserve energy

Their body temperature can drop below freezing

Without being fatal

From time to time they shiver themselves

Back to a relative warmth

And go on with their slumber

As the winter beyond rages

It’s admirable

This resistance to a brutal world

That despite its hostility

They would like to live in

So come spring

Some arctic ground squirrels in Alaska

Will emerge from their holes

And go looking for food

Unaware that months earlier 

PBS interrupted scheduled programming [Nature]

To show other creatures emerge

After hiding from a white squall