The Archaeologist's Lesson                                 


            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


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            Emanuel E. García, Sinking In, One Hundred Poems2013