Elemental Limericks, Part 6

A lustrous gray metalloid, anti-
Mony’s use within kohl has grown scant-a
In the West, which instead
Has it mixing with lead
Or inhibiting flames at a plant-a.

Tellurium’s namesake is Earth.
That’s ironic in light of its dearth
In the crust. In the past,
It flew off as a gas.
Now catalysis helps give it worth.

While iodine might be best known
For its medical uses, it’s shown
To help supplement feed,
Create photos, cloud-seed,
And move spacecraft, though not on its own.

One element starts with an X.
It’s called xenon, with handy effects
For its use in a lamp,
And it’s also a champ
To thrust ions, as NASA respects.

Pure cesium’s color’s pale gold.
To be solid, it must be quite cold
For a metal, and not
Via water. Too hot?
Too unstable: It tends to explode.

Ol’ barium isn’t found free.
It reacts very dangerously.
While it’s gray with a hint
Of a yellowish tint,
It makes fireworks green as we see.

Pure lanthanum’s tough to extract.
For its subgroup, it’s quick to react.
(That’s the lanthanide set,
Just in case you forget
Or were never aware of this fact.)

Despite its “rare-earth” designation,
We find cerium rife in creation,
With its presence fivefold
That of lead, as I’m told,
In the crust, though with less application.

Now, praseodymium’s neat
For its use in a scientist feat:
It allows things to be
At a millidegree
Above absolute zero. How sweet.

Neodymium’s sort of its mate,
Both discovered upon the same date,
When didymium split.
Today, “Neo” is fit
To give magnets an extra strong state.