Golden Sifting Pan by Elise Siregar Chen

Tough dirtied denim

and worn out leather 

adorning your feet

the land squelches beneath

and your socks are soaked

But it’s all worth it

for the treasure inside

the metal pan

dented and flimsy

it’s edges rusted over

and scratches cover its surface

A tattoo from each job completed

it clatters and clangs

tossed and rammed into

brown abyss

it ripples and shakes

like a tsunami 

At your fingertips

when it’s about to lose hope

and surrender to the sludge

you grip it by the rim

and pull it out

Of its quicksand

the contents shake and scramble

as you create your own earthquake

disorienting your plot of land

Until you see it shimmer

the speck of light

it finally reveals itself

A needle in a haystack

you grab it out

and reveal a dime sized

Gold slate

it shines brighter than the rest

a vibrant warm yellow

You discard the other minerals

as if it were trash

But what is this trash?

the quartz

the iron

the obsidian

their light may be dimmer

as they go unnoticed

but are they not the very basis

Of our own society?

the quartz whose pastel properties left it as chalk

A tool to mark and enhance what little grip we have

the iron whose resilient metallic bonds

Fused to make our finest machines

the obsidian whose glassy black edges

Protected our ancestors for centuries

should you toss away

what was once held so dear

for the sake of your own

Greed?

the needle may be sharper

But what would Rumplestiltskin say

when you sew your cloth 

without the thread from straw?

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Elise Siregar Chen is currently a 11th grader. She loves English literature and enjoys writing poems and short stories. Elise also likes to draw: her favorite contemporary artist is Yayoi Kusama. She is an ambassador for Girls Helping Girls Period, where she helps and raises awareness for girls who do not have the means or access to personal hygiene products. She has published poetry in Euphamism, and Poetry Quarterly.