"Tucson Basin, Another View" by Bob Atkinson

"Tucson Basin, Another View"
(c)2010 Bob Atkinson

He looked across the fertile plain
to valleys wide and pure

for rocky mountains rising high

his people once called theirs

he looked down

upon the fields of green

and at buildings of glass and stone
he looked down upon the river
where his ancestors once had roamed

he looked back in his mind
thinking of terror long ago
as he looked at the church 

which allowed slavery a toe hold

saddened by 

the things they did
what he could not get over

duplicity and arrogance

were their natural order 

I could see his face was grim
this wasn't any fun
how women and children
had been enslaved
at the point of gun

****

there are those who have the power
over others without shame
they give nothing in return
for the issuance of pain

****
was another time in this place

what they did was disgraceful

hope is now 
that was the past

yet feelings of doubt 

clouded his mind's vision

as remorse from them
he has not seen

this wasn't superstition

he looked to roads 

 carved through his land

scars all he thought, 

made him sad

to see the land he loved in his heart

be torn from its natural state

he said this isn't right to do

to dig deep into the heart of nature

with tools

no good can come

from changing things

that were made by a

supernatural being
****

so I looked at his face

and listened to wisdom

from another race

much here for me to learn

of life, of nature, of the uncertain

the power of it all scared my heart
****

was on a journey

that had already started

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