Soil

Beneath the Roman ruins
Beneath the recent paint
Always another layer sits
Dormant, silent, faint

Temples buried beaneath the earth
Columns peeking out
On top, a gold and marble church
Surrounded by a crowd

It seems the city always sinks
Or the soil forever rises
For every time the Roman's dig
The ancient world surprises

Beneath the rubble, soil, and sand
Other worlds unfold
And given another million years
The soil will swallow this city whole

I have been amazed by the amount of digging the Romans have done.  I am amazed, even more, at how often they have built directly on top of ancient monuments.  Of course, how were the ancient Romans to know that the future would consider every detail of their lives so important?  Every monument, it seems, has a dozen others beneath it, buried deep beneath the soil.  I suppose that in a few thousand years, most of modern Rome will also be ruins beneath the sand.