Archeology

If your feelings were dinosaur bones
or buried arrowheads,
I could dig inside you, carefully sifting
through your emotions like scorched sand,
excavating, carefully dusting each fragile piece
to reclaim its remaining beauty.
But your feelings are not artifacts
from Tutankhamen’s tomb
or broken pieces of Pompeian pottery.
They are like a Sphinx’s riddle,
and I don’t always even know what I am looking for,
so I’ll take whatever I can find.
-2008