The List of Mines, Old Spanish Trail Highway, 2 January 2019

The mines were home to demons, angels,
And memories, much the same, each a gap
In the side of the soil, the earth extracted.
Here was the mine of being like a god. There
The mine of crowns. The mine of shrines,
Itself one, beside the mines of shepherding,
Priests, thrones, nobility, truth, mere wealth.
The great mines descending and ascending,
The mines of eunuchs and entertainers,
The mines of battle standards, weapons,
The mines of bargaining, sex, prostitution,
The mines of law, libel, fear, and lamentation.
The mines of the hero, undaunted by danger,
Including the danger of mines that eat heroes.
The mines of scribes, of crafts, of arts,
Of weariness, peace, and holy purification.
The mines of many forgotten instruments
Still playing sweetly inside them, gold, silver.
The mines of the troubled heart, of the floods.
The mines of the destruction of empires.
The mines of the destruction of mines.
The mines of nothing much or nothing.
The mines of minds. The mines of mine.