Gold

I once looked upon a statue made of gold,
majesty of the hart's bold silhouette.
Gifted to us we spread the gild expanse
proved from the cairn to stand against the rot.

Melded with the past to hold to what is.
The stag stands still in pause between its breathing.
Frozen, surviving in the cold and buried night,
to lay here upon blue silk in hermetic case.

It Glows. Glows the butter metal glow. So we
feel the greed which makes men dive into the rock.
Sight of heaven, crumpled into matter and set to wait
for striving, sweating men. Glowing incorrupt.

The glowing in the metal's heart calls to us.
The Gods won't come to Earth because they fear
to quench their fire. Instead they built a bridge
of lumpen earth filled with tears from the sun.

Piled in nuggets wrested from the stream,
it dreams of Croesus' slaking avarice,
This ersatz deity, covenant stealer,
Builds its color on the temple door.

The amber brings down the heaven's fire to glow.
This earthen dust that drinks the burn of greed.
A deeper weight beyond the heft of balance
scales tipped to open the generous seed.

Stuart Andrew Marshall Tanner