This land has a history
Of pretenders who crown themselves
rulers
Of tax people who believe
that gold currency is thicker than blood
Of ruthless charlatans
who proclaim -
follow my words and ask no questions
This land has a history
Of idealist students & artists who said
honesty is the best policy
Of street protesters who
were arrested, silenced and killed
Of mothers whose children
were banished to reform schools
and returned with Samson-cut hair
A birth name is forgotten
A native tongue is lost
A folk song is never played
An umbilical cord to earth has been
forever severed
Who does this land belong to?
There is bounty for all
Forests, seeds, fruits, flowers, lakes
But the puppetiers and despots
have changed the script
and rewritten history to suit the fate lines
on their palms
I write to you
young people of this land:
hear the sadness of matriarch elephants
listen to the loneliness of ancient trees
take heed of the whale song from the sea
all that glitters is not gold
Heed my warning:
Those who do not learn from history
are doomed to repeat it*
*Quote from George Santayana
Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Meeting the Bar with guest host, Anna Montgomery. Fall seven times, stand up eight where we explore aphorisms, myth, and fables by writing our own gnomic poetry. I have used maxims and aphorism in my poem.
