Cotopaxi

© Matthew Word Bain

subduction and volcanoes
made this landscape
and made it possible
— for a time —
to walk
from Morocco
to Scotland
on the Appalachian Trail

somewhat more recently
when mining was the mainstay
manmade magma flowed
along the confluence of rivers
just beyond where the railroad runs now

Cotopaxi smelted iron
for a nanosecond of geological time
slag settled among the stones in the river
is all that remains on the ground
though the slopes above
still bear witness to the mining
that supplied the furnace with ore