A Massacre in Mercury

Submerged beneath sediments
of ancient ash and bone,
the variety of absence
suggests the magnitude of loss;
high-precision ageing
unearthing fountains that
loom above the scene of the crime.
Living mountains that
smother the air
and wilfully suck the blame
from prying, pointing fingers.
 
Buried deep in the records
of this geological cold case
tiny spores reveal new lines of enquiry,
laid out on marble slabs
their stress responses shimmer
below sterile laboratory lights.
Routine analysis exposing
abundant changes to
cellular structure;
a surreptitious switchblade
between the chromosomes.
 
Sifting through the evidence
the perpetrator remains,
their modus operandi
shifting from unsubtle suffocation
to mediated execution.
Fragile ferns feeding volcanic vitriol
across a tangled web of chains,
mainlining mercury
to meet the rising heat.
An eruption of Vesuvius seen from Portici by