Sestina 7

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

After we've already bled for you

Already been dead to you

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

Chapters of a democracy story

Descendants of genocide

Twelve score and more years ago

We went from being the majority

To being the smallest minority

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

We saw that emptying

Early morning skyline

Back through that horizon

Duck Valley 1979, Wounded Knee

Sand Creek, that Trail of Tears

Exactly how did our land

Become your country

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

While we're still crying tears of our own

With your past as your future

That industrial ruling class

Using religion as a weapon

Distilling love into hate

Pointing fingers and name calling evil

Sacrificing lives and blood

Making the innocent the new virgins

Offering to the gods of profit

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

In the homeland security

Pretending corporate corruption

Isn't economic terrorism

Money talks while the government listens

Compiling files on ones who think different

Conditioning an acceptance of debt

And not to expect the truth

So get used to hearing the lie

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

Misusing the beauty

Turning freedom into a killing machine

Mass murdering the environment

Weaponizing the psychology of fear

And pushing material addiction with

A substitution of rules faking the law

The bill of rights becomes collateral damage

Making the constitution another broken treaty

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

Way this story is unfolding

We may end up crying together

As in crying at the same time

But we're short on tears to cry for you

With all these tears to cry of our own

Now you want us

To cry your tears for you

By John Trudell