Dreams in a River of Gold

Art generated by AI.

 

Beside the meandering stream,
a prospector worked his gold pan
while water tumbled over 
smooth granite boulders. 

Here the mountain stream 
grew deeper in its channel 
and formed pools, a likely place 
for gold to settle.

The prospector tirelessly shoveled, 
sifted, screened, and panned—
then picked gold nuggets 
from the black sand in his pan.

Laboring by the stream, he knew why
he left home, saying goodbye—
swapping his life for one on the frontier,
a life of hardship, danger, and brutal work. 

The reason was clear when he bedded down
by a crackling campfire, under a cold 
sky filled with stars and a half-moon. 
As he slept, next to the stream, 
the aspens whispered dreams 
making a strike, taming a new land, 
and building the West.

By Steven Wade Veatch