Shawn L. Bird

My blood is sloshing past my ears

like water through a sluice box,

I’m waiting for gold,

to catch on the riffles,

blood born riches,

pounding past yesterday.

.

.

A little vocabulary support.  In small claim gold mining (aka PLACER mining), the miners commonly make sluice boxes, which are chutes to pour water/dirt/mud to capture the fine gold.  It’s more efficient than panning (which is basically swooshing water/dirt/mud in a bowl).  Here’s a site that shows sluices and how they work.  There are slats along the run of the sluice to capture the rocks and gold; these are the riffles.  Gold is heavy, so it (and magnetite) will always catch in the riffles, then it’s a matter of separating the gold and magnetite.  We had friends who were placer miners in northern BC.  They used machinery and sluices to work through tons of gravel and a bountiful summer’s hard labour  was about a cup of gold, much of it no more that powdery flakes.