My Red Tree

When did we misplace
the thread so tightly wound
A tapestry unravels
as colors drain to lifeless
Corrupted
by the dust
the tiny worm which gnaws
its bleak so bitter hole
through the fibers
the hardened core
that once had been
our lives

Forever it might be
that we are joined
by blood
Yet souls have ceased
to merge
So
fragile becomes the canvas
once so tightly bound
Watch it waste away
and vanish
before our very eyes
as obscure
become the thoughts
of those enlightened days
of old
Too distant now
to fathom
the thread from where
we unknowingly
left off

Does anyone ever wonder
How the other half lives
What ties that bind them
What emotions sway
What makes the mechanisms
Of each individual brain tick
What holds them together
When they have nothing left
How do they feel when they wake
Do they question the choices
Or the lack of opportunities
Are they angry inside
Or does sad and lonely hold them
Do they find themselves asking why
Or do they accept with no expectation
No hope or dream of more
As they wonder
How does the other half live

God wept today
Renting the sky
With a flood
Of soon forgotten tears
The ground trembled
As souls took wing
To a final embrace
Hushed now are the voices
Still becomes the air
Yet numb from fear
What needless loss
Have we witnessed
Will time remember
When the tears
Become extinguished
As the light
Of our mournful dead

The herd darkens the sky
As though a storm may come
I hear the lowly sigh
As the bison start to run
With deafening steel
The slaughter’s begun

So run, legend run
Run into the sun
The killers have come
Your battle has begun

Confusion clouds your vision
As you shelter the young
But how they take you down
One by one
The pounding of your fear
Stains the Promised Land

As you run legend run
Run into the sun
The killers have come
Your battle has begun

Black sea of the prairie
How fast you’re fading now
The rifles repeat
To silence your screams
You are gold for the taking
But what have they done

As you run legend run
Run into the sun
Your killers have come
Your battle’s begun

Cut out their tongues
But leave the rest
To rot in the cold day’s heat
How brave you are mighty hunter
But do you know
What you have done

As they run how they run
Into the sun
For the killers have come
Their battle is done

With silent rage
Warriors stalk the bloody stench
Their tribe marked for death
As mothers weep
Through the cold of winters drain
With nothing to silence their babies pain

And they run how they run
On into the sun
For the killers have come
The battle is done

For what is death
What is pain
That I have seen
Through your eyes
As you run how you run
Legend run, into the sun
For your battle is done

A legend is born
Yet will never truly die
For in each of us we carry
A part of you inside
Beyond the last sunset
Until the end of time
That you may find the peace
This world so easily denied

Clouds weeping the tune of winds lonely sigh
The powers of heaven engulfing day
Awaken slumbering earth yet silent
Do enlighten us with your existence
That we may foresee a bold tomorrow
Born through death of winters faded penance