Scientists search for years looking for Zinnium,*
Thought to be able to reduce anxiety like lithium
Yet be as valuable and useful as gold/platinum.
At first they looked for it in the nuclear reactors, particle accelerators
Science never found it. Asked industry
Best brains didn't get cold fusion, cheap hydrogen, helium-3
Got non-stick aluminum foil, strips for teeth whitening
Not even close. Looked to the wealthy, their troves,
Off-shore accounts, gold deposits. Not a trace
Zurich, Tokyo, Fort Knox, even in Bill's basement.
Spirituality was tried, Vatican gave up in a week,
Mormons and Moslems hung out for two.
First found in Acoma Indian Reservation in New Mexico,
A land twice stolen, then used as a tribe dump.
Then veins in walls of ghettos in Chicago, the Bronx,
Ozarks, Hell's Kitchen, Havre, Watts wherever
Poverty rampant, which is about everywhere--Zinnium.
Industry tried to buy it, merge it, acquire it, steal,
Anti-trust, intellectual property theft it, but couldn't,
Eminent Domain failed couldn't even class it under
Homeland Security, trumped up terrorism shenanigans
As unused as IRS tax laws for the wealthy.
Zinnium--a kind of memory metal that remembers
Real shape of the past. A metal that detects lies,
Reflects truth like polished aluminum, but the mirror
Can't be broken with media spins, false attacks.
Alloys with propaganda feeds back direct opposite
Like a photo negative complete with real x-ray motives.
*A cross between lithium and platinum
Terry Brix travels worldwide for his business as a “green” chemical engineer. A collection of his poetry Chiseled from the Heart was published in 2000 by Vigeland Museum, Norway. His poetry has appeared in The Evansville Review, Fireweed, Exit 13, Curbside Review, Small Brushes, Blueline, Bellowing Ark, Liberty Hill Poetry Review, Main Channel Voices, and The Antioch Review.
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