Beauty, beauty, beauty be
tell you what I see
I see sage smoke billowin’
smell that’s fillin’ the air
with feelings of peace and purpose.
Here on the surface of Earth
we’ve collected.
On concrete paved over dirt
we’re connected to Ohlone,
original, heirs to aboriginal history
and misery.
Shell mounds paved over too
never knew that underneath me and you
lies ancestry interred
their dignity deferred ’til who knows when?

How can I begin to say
I’m sorry?
Crimes in the name of glory
of flag and nation.
Celebratin’ wild west conquest is what I know
but now you show me
broken treaties
land and water despoiled
and bodies beaten
I don’t know, can this really be the price of freedom?

Freedom to rise
is constitutionalized.
So you can’t deny the voices
crying out in ancient tongues
singing unforgotten songs
of earth and sky and water
relatives of one another
and us too, if we can dig it.
Gotta give up our addiction
to ill-gotten power
be it bloodline or pipeline
and incline ourselves
toward each other, and nature.
Embrace the strange changes
that healing requires.

I’m inspired by faces of dozens of hues
solemnly marching
bearing banners of peace
a gathering stream, soon we will release
a flood of conviction, in rising
devour old notions
erode tired forms
Come along!
Flow steadily
clean and ready to nourish generations unborn.

Mni Wichoni
Water is Life