PASS NOT THIS WAY AGAIN
Riding out in the country side
A heavy sadness fills my heart
As the landscape passes by
Asleep, in silent apathy
In empty feed lots and hayfields
Vacant pasture lands and cornfields.
There is a new growth instead
Of trees in sprout, and lifeless structures
That plant their hidden roots
Small towns on down a black new road
Entwine and flourish,
Where family farms once were plenty
A picket sign reads 'property sold'.
Cornstalks that grew, in a straight and even row
To greet a morning sun,
Never again to grow.
I think of the red man who saw
The wagons roll across the prairie,
I feel his great sorrow, a heart in pain
For he too lost a friend
And our fathers said, 'progress'
Back then.
No, quite beauty will not pass this way again.
written by Realistic 17 of Nov. 1991