Hidden Treasure

            For Ruby

All I need is a branch

            Solid in hand

To separate the soggy wood chips

            The sweetly moist earth

Dark and soft from last week’s snow.

The sudden surprise of a little town:           

Worms wriggling fast, but not

            Fast enough.

A live creature twists in my palm and

            I am king.

I turn it over like a gold coin

All run to catch a glimpse

As I pass my find, hand to hand,

Like an expert archaeologist before an audience

            Fingering some small bone

Such as the tooth of a diplodocus.

There’s more over here, someone shouts

And I scramble purposefully

My first worm almost forgotten

            Dangling from my fingertips

As I stand over the digging site

            My voice ringing out

An empress insuring her right to rule.