Dreaming of wealth, he drilled,

searching for oil or gas. What he found was…

Salt!

For 250 million years it had waited,

deep underground, to shatter

Ben Blanchard’s dream.

But more modest dreams were met,

as miners groveled, oblivious

of the glitter and stark beauty, chipping

at granite walls, shuddering

under loads of mineral that would be crushed

and sold, to be crushed again

under the nation’s

automobile tires.