Flame and wind that night
Maybe even thousands of generations ago
When Neanderthals were just one team
Playing in an epoch-long March Madness
In which losing a round meant extinction
Look around: Homo sapiens took the crown
But that night also, the green stone was there
In the embers and the flames and the wind.
A happenstance that night
Of earth and air and fire
Acting out
In the transformative circumvention
Of chemistry and physics.
From malachite
In embers and flames and wind
A minuscule river of molten blood
That ensnared the eye of
Neal, a curious Neolithic Guy
A pyrotechnic moment
On the cusp of Ages
From Stone to Copper
Then Bronze, then Iron
Glass and ceramic, along the way
From different earths, these
The children of fire
Portents of boilers, of rail.
Of flight and of war
And of power and industry
Of a world made small
A pyrotechnic moment
And a curious Neolithic guy
Who seized a glimmer in his eye.
Ivan Amato 