Oh, Mighty Sonoran,
I fight back tears
for what they’ve
done to God’s Brown Children,
Sonorans for hundreds of years,
for how they’ve
banned their studies,
lied about their heroes,
stolen books filled with their histories like purse snatchers abusing passers-by on dangerous urban streets while they cried in their classroom seats.

I wonder how such hate,
could for a moment,
foment in the human brain
when all around there lies your beauty,
in so many wondrous forms:
    as mountain peaks high above the timberlines;
    as hillsides of proud posturing sahuaros;
    as fire breathing deserts and lazy tropics;
    as grasslands and chaparral;
    delightful moons;
    sunsets that warm the heart;
    monsoons
    that flash
    frightening lightning shows
    that unleash crackling sonic booms.

But human ugliness reigns,
upon your vast terrain,
a strain
of irrationality
suffered by the Powers-that-be
that has metastasized
into a real fear that God’s Brown Children will discover truths that might set them free to think, to analyze, to strive to enrich their communities as they better their lives.

So, I call on you,
oh, Mighty Sonoran.
    I call on you
    to give the children
    wings to fly
    high above the hysteria,
    with ease,
    as they please
    like desert birds
    riding in the currents
    of your gentle breezes.
I call on you
to infuse them
with compassion
for their fellow human beings,
able to reach out
far and wide
like the ferocious flames
in your runaway fire storms,
like the relentless forces in your
dust devils and whirlwinds
that fill spaces
and crevices
that are open to them.
    I call on you
    to keep their hearts
    contentrated on a world
    where everyone
    can realize
    their hopes and dreams.
I call on you
to keep love in their bosoms
where it can radiate
like the waves of vapors
that rise from your burning floor,
bringing about a form of human respect and understanding to your land on a par with your masterpiece, the Grand Canyon, that you hold so dear.

I call on you to still my tears.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.