Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears

1 of 1 signed fine art print is 10" by 17 1/2" printed on Epson Professional Matte 13” x 19” paper using pigment inks. Print is custom framed and matted. Single mat is Luna suede (gray) with silver.

Registered at The National Fine Arts Registry

art registration ID: PD010304505

for information

Trail of Tears

Our People took a walk one day,

it was a walk we call the trail of tears.

They called this walk a relocation,

they told us it was a new start in a new land.

We walked from Louisiana and across Oklahoma,

then from Oklahoma to Arizona we walked.

And left tens of thousands along the way.

They killed off all our buffalo,

then fed us rancid meat.

We were cold, they took our homes

so they gave us blankets.

Blankets that made us bleed.

They cut our hair and took our young

said assimilate

then forbade us to speak our tongue.

They wrote on a piece of paper

that forbade infringement on religion.

Yet they killed us for dancing

at a place called Wounded Knee,

When they said all men were created equal,

they took away our land and our dignity.

Were we so different? You and I.

Was it the color of our skin,

or the difference in our religion?

Or was it the land we lived on?

The land you wanted to own?

You said as long as the grass grows,

as long as the rivers run.

Then you polluted the rivers

and burned off all the grass.

You said it was ours forever.

Or so the story goes

Until yellow metal, coal or black gold.

Then the next trail of tears begins.

The story is old, as old as time.

It is not religion or race that rules the land.

But the almighty dollar and

Upon who’s open hand.

We now sell our art

like hookers on street corners,

We run the casinos, and walk the trail of tears.

We have learned too

it is the color of the dollar

and not the color of the man.

This poem and many of my other poems can be found in my new book Reflections in Poetry.