Many species preceded us
Touched down, tasted dirt,
Spread greedy roots
Like us
Reached for the pulsing winds
Engendered curious diggers
Raptors without hesitations
Coexisting mostly
We came and saw like
The others
We brought our own grasses, moved
Our waters from location to location
Chanted to icons, intercessors
Battled till the mountain was brick
Now the land has a hold on us
We can’t define how
The next front is moving in
We don’t want any more
Not the ones before us nor the ones
To replace us, the ones we savaged from
The land and the ones to inherit our gates
We have fought and can fight again
Not like last time
For a golden land, but for
Plastic straws and fiber conduits
The heavy land changes year by year
Whoever triumphs
This poem was published in the Spring 2022 issue of J Journal.
Andy Oram
February 25, 2019