Golden Sifting Pan
Free Verse
Tough dirtied denim
and worn out leather
adorning your feet
the land squelches beneath
and your socks are soaked
But it’s all worth it
for the treasure inside
the metal pan
dented and flimsy
its edges rusted over
and scratches cover its surface
A tattoo from each job completed
it clatters and clangs
tossed and rammed into
brown abyss
it ripples and shakes
like a tsunami
At your fingertips
when it’s about to lose hope
and surrender to the sludge
you grip it by the rim
and pull it out
Of its quicksand
the contents shake and scramble
as you create your own earthquake
disorienting your plot of land
Until you see it shimmer
the speck of light
it finally reveals itself
A needle in a haystack
you grab it out
and reveal a dime sized
Gold slate
it shines brighter than the rest
a vibrant warm yellow
You discard the other minerals
as if it were trash
But what is this trash?
the quartz
the iron
the obsidian
their light may be dimmer
as they go unnoticed
but are they not the very basis
Of our own society?
the quartz whose pastel properties left it as chalk
A tool to mark and enhance what little grip we have
the iron whose resilient metallic bonds
Fused to make our finest machines
the obsidian whose glassy black edges
Protected our ancestors for centuries
should you toss away
what was once held so dear
for the sake of your own
Greed?
the needle may be sharper
But what would Rumplestiltskin say
when you sew your cloth
without the thread from straw?
