There is no wealth but life." John Ruskin
Las Medulas - Leon, Spain
The Romans found red rock waiting patiently
Knew all it would take was time, hydraulic ingenuity
And the power of thousands
Toiling blind in tunnels
The rushing of water
Collapsing the mountains
People and mud swept away
Settled and sieved, patiently searched
All for the flecks, the golden flecks
The eyeblinks of matter
Instants of light
Hiding in darkness.
For what ? Wealth, an idea.
So there was work for centuries
The breaking of rocks, bread and people
And a deep vein conjured
Pumping the flecks to the heart of darkness
The brilliant city, Rome.
A legion guarded the trail of riches
As they crawled over the passes
To the ships waiting by"Our Sea".
From there by wind and oar across the water
To the men who bought land and armies
Silks and ivory from the long caravans snaking across the deserts
The loyalty and lives of countless men and women
The elite of Rome
Who held the empire close
Swathes of the hostage Earth in thrall.
And when Rome fell, as empires do,
The wealth dispersed
Some into the earth again
Hidden against another day
Some to coin and jewelry, to pay a hungry soldiery
Adorn the skin of women
Gleam in holy buildings
Or carried in flight to corners of the world.
I imagine the flecks and gather them, every one,
And build a priceless shrine to sacrifice and greed.
Back at Las Medulas
The red towers,vertiginous cliffs
Stood stark for centuries
A giant machine returning to the earth.
Then galleons brought more trillions of flecks from the New World
While slowly green life
Probed the nooks and crannies
The little pockets of soil
To get a footing, and in the end the chestnuts grew
And became ancient, gnarled, grasping the rocks
Pacifying landscape,
Cradling beauty, aloof,
Remembering the scars.
Rest in peace, you silent flecks,
The host still sleeping in the rock
Rest to the end of the world.
"The only wealth is life".
