History

Robert Morgan

Where cloudbursts tore a gash 

 in the shoulder of the ridge, 

 uprooting ferns and hedge, 

 a maple and an ash, 

 a honeysuckle vine 

 and wires of gold ground pine, 

 the slide exposed a vein 

 of mica, groundhog den, 

 a zone of luminous clay, 

 revealing rocks like teeth, 

 a seam of yellow earth, 

 and brought to light of noon, 

 after half a millennium, 

 there in the mud, a shining 

 coin of the Spanish king.