Fountainhead Quintina

   by Nadine Lockhart

Find the burning metal which fires  
a civilization, my civilization—images
alive with the current of forced electric, 
heat forges metal into shape, lights 
metal—hot white in a fire held under 

the sound of a pounding hammer, held under 
the influence of the series of images, fires
those images, repeats those images, imagine 
alternatives, the way it carries—the electric,
the imagination—like an emerald splits light 

into facets, into elemental sparks; light
reflects in an appraiser’s eye from under
a magnifier, replicates the micro-fires
within the repetition of images, images,
a pulse, the dynamo soul of electricity,

the macro-stitched outline of an electro-
magnetic field surrounds the earth in lights,
crisscross at the top, crisscross under
the globe—conduit of flame and fire,
a constant intercourse, imaginary

mirrors within mirrors mimic,
a cacophony of sounds electric
married in a dance with light—patterns 
form, emerge, were always—under
the Law, the Source, the Power of fire.