Geyserscape
Lynne Bama
Yellowstone Park… is probably as close as we can come
to a view of what the Earth’s surface was like four billion years ago.
—Betsey Dyer, A Field Guide to Bacteria
It could be a meadow in Hell,
this steaming overspill that blooms
in garish mats and strings—
orange furs that ripple
in the hot current, green scums
teeming with flies.
Look again: This is a remnant
of the womb from which
we finned and clawed
our way up gasping beaches
into chilly zones of air—
doubtful experiments
whose shadows fall
across the bustling seethe
we fail to recognize
as home.
We drift away to other sights,
but the wellspring simmers on.
Undaunted and unspent, it pauses
to consider fresh inventions.