principles of geology: a poem

ahoy there
avast there
we are searching for feldspar there
this is our mission:
find the feldspar

we travel high and low
we do not seek moral purpose
only feldspar

through no fault of ours
precious gold turns to lead
grain to frigid dust
and groundwater to sand

in civilization:
a drill rig, operational
lacanian theory
polychlorinated biphenyls
and the anti-mass spectrometer

these were our home
but now we know only feldspar