Sapphire and turquoise pools roil
and dance to surfacing bubbles.
Thermophilic algae glaze pool
edges, painting neon streaks of
mustard, rust, and gold.
 
We watch as steam bursts from
earth’s crust, rises fifty feet,
dispersing the smell of  Dante’s
Inferno. The earth trembles.
We wait and wonder standing
on this fragile cover of nature’s
pressure cooker.


© by Norma Wightman.
Used with the author’s permission.