This is my culture

[vern.silver]

when i woke this morning
there was a lazy mist
close to the ground
and the earth was wet with dew

the sky a dull grey blue
strung out on that thin edge
that passes unnoticed
as night gives in to day

a flock of geese arrowed in for a landing
on an open field
the morning loud with their honking
as it was loud
with the cool fresh start of day

this is my culture

the abstract noises of morning
before the sun is up above the sky

while it is just a faint blue insistence
on a skyline
unintelligible for the confused mix
of man and nature

this is my culture
so i move on and endure
it's emnity

let's listen to the smoke on the sky
the cloudy water running by
in rivers and streams
that have forgotten their way
into the sea

- when my ancestors arrived in this place
it was a wilderness of beauty

we learned to be wild in that wilderness
taking from the gifts of our gods
only what we needed
returning the rest

then the others came
beginning only with a few
then in their masses
bringing with them
a new wilderness

beauty became an abstract
we could not define

its face changed at the touch
of different hands
until we could no longer
recognize it

our culture waned
we became lost and began to wander
in the dark spaces of our souls

we allowed these dark spaces to corrupt us

in the naked arc of our anxiety
etched out against the sky
like faces in the smoke

this is our culture that we move to embrace
the will of our conscience

will we rise up and take back
our peace and our quiet
or will we continue to live
in the shadows of ourselves

our culture: our enmity -

when i woke this morning i noticed
the darkness in my room and realized
how the days were getting shorter

i struggled with the concept of waking
and lay in my bed wrapped in my disarray
contemplating my approach
knowing the structure i must follow

i rose with a restless ache
an accompanying sadness

i looked at my body and wondered
how age had changed it
the scars that mark the progress
of my soul

i looked at my face
wondering what others see
knowing myself
the faults that lay beneath

these are the things
we all must face

how we share with others
the patterns of our lives
the necessary conflict
the pain

this is my culture

our culture

our enmity