Placerville

(Sesquicentennial in perspective)

After the temblor the strata settle

What was gold-dust in a slowing stream

Falls from that suspended gleam

Into solidities of lode-metal.

Shock, aftershock--over in days,

Consolidation of gold--eons:

But on our conceptual screens

Time knows its place.

In ten minutes a couple buys

At the store where such are sold

A ring struck from that gold

Engraved “Eternity.”