Song of the Death of Songs

We believed in life, we believed in death,
We dwelt in the warmth of the Great Spirit's breath
We drank from the waters where the silver salmon leapt
We followed the moon where the wild wolf crept
We danced in the sun where the buffalo roamed
We sat and we dreamed where the waters foamed
We tasted the sound of the flowers waking,
We felt the scent the sky was making
We ran with the deer as they fled through the trees
We dug with the bear for honeyof the bees.
We ate and we slep, and this was our life,
We knew not of cruelty, hate or strife
Then White Man came with strange new ways,
He measured land and counted the days,
We showed him the Earth and how she grew,
Helped him, taught him all we knew,
What we offered they took and kept,
Claiming the land that we first stepped,
We watched and we learnt and we tried the same,
But White didn't like it when Red played the game.
They slaughtered our brothers, stole our wives,
Quenched our spirit, broke our lives
Mother Nature gave a desperate cry,
We watched her struggle, dwindle, die.
So now we dance to the rhythm of death
And dwell no more in the Great Spirit's breath.

by Bethany Lewis