Home and Country

Not so long, by and by
from off shores, far and wide
my dear ancestors came to be
in the heartland I call home, now
where Indigenous feet walked free.

Ships and steamers, lean and loud
filled with dreamers, poised and proud
crossed a hungry, untamed sea
toward a new land, with a strong vow
declaring their democracy!

On the soil, thick and red
humans suffered, scorned and bled
as the land once claimed to be
"The New World" they called home, now
as far as the eye could see.

In their conquest, wanting all
signed years later, the protocol
I stand in strange company
living blindly, knowing somehow
what once is conquered is never free.