Blistered feet brand foreign soil
Obsidian hair whips faces of toil
Moccasins long since broken
Cries of protest yearn, unspoken

Ladled from their “Melting Pot”
Poured out, left, abandoned, forgot
Nu na da ul tsun yi
Bearing shadows of ignominy


Silt and clay so lachrymose
Lamenting the moribund Cherokee Rose
White petals plucked from xanthous core
Sorrow-soured song twangs a dissonant chord


Crimson tears stain crooked ambition
Silenced horror stays unwritten
Is deliverance still worth fighting for
When home is not home anymore?


Herded like cattle, spurred by pain
Deemed benighted, savage, unfit to reign
Demagogues crying, Manifest Destiny!
Sealing our sepulcher in the Land of the Free