Iguassu Falls

How do you capture the power of
    falling water
when you see whole screens
fissure into rainbows?

At the borders of Brazil, Argentina
      and Paraguay
the combined waters of 30 rivers
plunge down the force.
1,750 cubic metres of water
pour over the precipice
every second.

It is said that the sound can be heard
      for 15 miles.

At Iguassu Falls
sulphides of iron
black oxides and cubic crystals
course down the drop.

A mass of niobium
light-grey and quarry-dull
weeps like Niobe
all tears
at the loss of her young.

Loose rocks,
hitting the boulders
with the hardness of tungsten,
tough, malleable and ductile,
splinter into fragments
the beginnings of lamp filaments
high-speed steel
and thermionic valves.

Age, too, tumbles
in the fall
its innate, rhythmical movement
eroding the stone
with force.