Saturday, April 3, 2004

The Trail of Tears: a poem

The Trail of Tears
By Brian Childers ©1998

I look to the long road behind
My heart is heavy with my people’s sorrow
Tears of grief I weep - for all that we have lost
As we march ever farther from the land of our birth
On the Trail of Tears

Mile after mile and day after day
Our people are fewer with each rising sun
Disease and starvation they take their terrible toll
And though we suffer still we march on…
On the Trail of Tears

I watch my beloved weaken and fall
Upon the road like so many before…
With tears in my eyes I hold my wife to my breast
And in my arms she breathes her last…
On the Trail of Tears

Mile after mile and day after day
We march to a land promised us for all time
But I know that I can no longer go on
I know that is a land that I shall never see…
On the Trail of Tears

As my body - it falls to embrace the earth
My spirit - it soars to greet the sky
With my dying breath am I finally set free
To begin the very long journey towards home
On the Trail of Tears

CheyFire

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh nice poem i remember The trail of tears i learned about it. So sad it's not fair how they took their land.

Anonymous said...

I have Cherokee blood as well--I was born in the Mountains of Kentucky. Recently we visited North Carolina, where the Trail of tears started...
hestiahomeschool