From the moment I touched culture
I knew I wanted it all
I mimicked the screen
I grazed off books
I laughed
I cried
From the story of this, that and those people.

I watched each civilization fall
Through the eyes of another
Though the eyes of many
And I thought to myself…
What a terrible fate
What a horrific way to end such a culture
And in doing so, the civilization
Leaving only broken history to drink
The ashes of the stories blow to the wind
Deemed legend, or forgotten

I look at the pictures
Antique and tarnished
I notice those smoldering charcoal black eyes
The sadness expressed in every way possible
The anguish…
The loss
The fear

I dream myself into a time before then
Where everything was ok
Where everyone was happy and unafraid
Where we took what we needed and just that
Not what we could get, but because it was needed
Just what was enough...enough to live,
Enough to grieve your own life lost

A time of prosperity
A time of feeling the earth beneath your feet
The fresh air on your skin and filling your lungs
The thrill of the hunt
For all the right intentions.
The family gatherings
Of family that wasn’t really family
But who cared?
You were my brother
Your were my sister, my aunt, my uncle
You were my everything

From the city of hip scarves and caravans
To my palace of gold and jade
Sweet walls of alabaster
Adobe houses
My castle of death
Built with limestone
Till death do we part
It is still here but are you?
No.

You died with the rest of them
When a plague called conquest swept over our lands
When guns took the place of arrows
When various forms of torture took on a whole new,
More formal name
To make them feel better about it-

But there’s no justice in a wrong world
Just excuses for what you’ve done
And how to “escape” your problems
But never your debt

Man will never be in the same place
Always moving
Yet going in circles
Repeating the cycle
Again and again

Now and then we’ve just tried to stay alive
Now they’ve got it easy
You think you’ve got it hard?
We’ll see.

Now my brothers and sisters
We are not building a nation
There is no beginning here
No prosperity
No hope
No love

You’re making the end
Signing it off with your lives
And that of your children

I miss the sweet pine
The tall oak
The streams not beautiful for the gold that they hold
But the life that they contain
Swiftly running down the mountain

I wish I could breathe
This air is so toxic
Vile
My lungs being ripped to shreds
And yet…
We must fight
My brothers
My sisters

Wi Na De Ya Ho
I am the Great Spirit
It is so
Learn or leave
This path is yours
Conjure the humanity in your soul
And face the hate in your heart
Repetition is foolish
And doubt is necessary

Now who are we?
You and me.
I don’t see the answer near
Because we are the last ones standing
And with everyone in our way
With a new way to pave
And pay
Don’t try top stop us
Because we will be unlike those corpses of history
We will succeed
Or we will be lost to history