Gold Fever Poem by Laurence Overmire

Life was always somehow
Disappointing
Never measuring up to the
Surreal possibility of the dream

Wives and husbands sitting at tables
Children's mouths to feed
Unbending silence making the darkness
Seem oppressive

Was there a way out, a means of
Escape
For an hour, a day, a month or
Two, a year even to

Strike it rich in the mystic
Mountain lore of golden nuggets
Wending their way through the
Spiritual estuaries, where the promise

Of this world
Made its fatal presence known in that
Wakening hour, just before that
First glowing light of dawn.

~ Laurence Overmire