Earth heaved you inexorably closer to our world,
By millimetres each decade it raised you up.
The once-oiled hide that kept you wrapped
For generations, slowly carried off by feasting creatures
And you spilled through the gapped cloth.
The first of you emerged unblinking into moonlight
As frost clamped the fields.
A walker saw it winking in slanting sun
And tramped across the furrows to raise it to his eye, amazed.
Ruby-red glaze pushing through fretted metal, pure Saxon gold
And garnet we were later told, a scabbard boss.
Sword hilt decorations follow, armour jewels, many a cross.
The earth yields marvels of craft, maybe spoils of war.
Celtic ornament coils around a dagger haft,
Dragon biting dragon, arm in arm roped,
Magic to protect the holder in the battlefield
From harm, he hoped.