Poem: Photo The Dig

Photo copyright Marc Weinberg

THE DIG

The day's light glances hot off the earth

and glints from picks and shovels

as we spade and screen, brush, pencil

and string collections of objects

flower-pressed in the pages of time while

even the stars have changed.

A journey of a few feet down and

a few thousand years back, mapped

read and recorded in forensic detail.

Forgotten bits and fragments fingered awake

from their cool sleep to the cauldron

of the midday glare are caressed

by the gaze of today's endeavor.

And now when day is done and

a swarm of aches and pains plagues us,

a molten sun pours itself into night where

I will sift and sort the middens of my mind.

--Vicki Westberg