Subduction Not exactly seduction, though there is a bed of fire below. Not precisely abduction, though there is a vanishing. The common root is duction, a guiding or leading. But to where? The prefix steers. Subduction, a dragging down of the lithosphere, the crust and all creation upon it, the ocean, soil, dead roots and long buried bones. One part of the planet devours another. The bowels below are a red glowing forge, a universal melting into magma. Then mountains spew up a resurrection as lava scalds away old soils. The curtain of ash settles and the bedrock cools. The repertoire continues, for on that rock-hard stage once again, the first of life grows, the first of life is consumed.

Richard Fein

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