The wind-swept plains of Helicon
twist in the naked full-dark sky
all the crops dwindle under
emergent rusts and cryptobacter.

In the machine-dug swale
an assemblage of native fibrous plaits
shaped like a terrestrial biped
with a cavity to receive the victim.

This place knows fire from ancient times
but not like this burning.
Tongues of flame like cirrus
the smell carries far towards the sea.

Black blood ash smolders at the core
a friable carbon meteorite
to bring abundance back to the land
an anomaly for ground sensing.