Millennia after millennia Riftia
lived in peace. Then
1977, a year after Mao's death
during the Ogaden War,
scientists descended the ocean's
depths and discovered
morę positive ignorance:
a world
no hominid had seen before
at 350°C, sea-
floor rifts black
smoke pours
Riftia blooms red
plumes. Existence,
Lightlessness.
Collection,
di ssection, experiment
sequence. Quetzalcoatl
bleeds.