From early on I loved to plot

            And dig, looking for paydirt

            To explain the earth I saw

 

            Later, as my methods grew

            Sophisticated

            I delighted in the order of a

            Formal excavation,

            The small squares in which

            I skinned away the surface

            Inch by inch,

            Far more delicate a delver

            Than a truffle hound,

            Though what I brought to light

            Proved far less palatable:

 

            That every treasure will receive

            A burial, in time

 

            A fact our predecessors then

            Like us today

            Would kill themselves

            To disavow