So when Sebaldus heaped icicles on the fire
and watched them blazing bright as firewood,
was it his faith in the benevolence of God;
had he sat in snow at -5 warming his hands by
curtains of icicles, stalactites with flaming innards?
Or had he a nuclear bent to his mind:
the emission of energy contained in crystals,
solar-induced bond dissociation in the ice lattice.
Did he foresee the nuclear radiance and the heat
that leaves people clinging, shadows to stone?
