FIRST AWAKENING

My home wasn't shattered like my heart
Into this tiny reservation without longhouses
Five hundred year old sentinel cedars still
Plume mountains and hills and dance in the sunset
Driven silver salmon struggle upstream
Glimmers of instinct jump the untamed flow
Eagles sail high winds on ebony wings
Powerful talons seize a soaring salmon
Crackling fires shoot sparks into the night sky
Drums, songs and dancers sustain earth's heartbeat

So it was before the time of darkness:
Dull matchbox HUD houses, alcohol and drugs
Shorn mountains and hilltops plundered by greed
Mother Earth's lungs gasping gray oily air
Engineered salmon crowd out the Native
Wild runs die and starve the Indian soul
A deserted aerie crowns a lone pine
The exiled eagles hunt for a safe home
We sing new songs to the One Creator
Who changed names like a gambler switches bones