Fire and Ice

Once upon a time

Many long

Midnights ago

Plumes

Of ash and

Gas

Sheered

A canyon

In ice~

~

Sulphurous

Secrets

Became

Locked

In chunks

Of

Solid

Thick

White

~

Aeons of snow

Passed~

Burying

Static

Electric

Dreams

~

Until

Human guilt

Drove

Cadets of dreams

To nature's stage~

Hoping

Quizzically

To find

A play

With alternate

Answers

~

(Even a "Waiting for Godot"

Re-run

Would do)

~

But sometimes

Answers have a habit

Of getting lost

In more

Ridiculous

Questions

~

For all they found

Was a mountain~

A volcanic mountain~

Like a rainbow serpent~

Pulsing

Echoes

Echoes

Of some very

Ancient life

~

Fire

Beneath

The ice

~

They left

Empty handed

~

The only sign

Some monumental

Wisdom

Passed by

Was the river

Coursing

Through veins

On bland brows

~

Snaking

Melting

Smiling

~

In response to "Ancient Antarctic eruption noted" - BBC News - 20.01.08

Scientists have found what they say is the first evidence of a volcanic eruption under the Antarctic ice sheet.
They believe the volcano erupted about 2,000 years ago, and would have burst through its ice covering, producing a burst of steam and rocky debris...The thickness of ice above suggests the eruption occurred just over 2,200 years ago..."We believe this was the biggest eruption in Antarctica during the last 10,000 years. It blew a substantial hole in the ice sheet, and generated a plume of ash and gas that rose about 12km into the air."...The Hudson Mountains lie close to Pine Island Glacier, one of the West Antarctic glaciers whose flow has accelerated in recent years...But volcanoes which are not conspicuously active at present may also be generating heat under the ice..."This complicates things. However, it cannot explain the more widespread thinning of West Antarctic glaciers that together are contributing nearly 0.2mm per year to sea level rise."