(from the album An Empty Sparking Light)

la tierra
your gentle hands
o’, those callused hands
tied behind your back
grasping
at those frayed knots

is it getting old?
watching every freedom fighter?
watching every trampled broken heart?
has it hushed your spirits?

la tierra
with the exits blocked
and the distress sounds
I know it seems like the end
la tierra

choice. the fiction. a word we can’t recall
we.  choose.  not. the soil, the water
not.  the family we mend
nor.  the eyes we look into
not.  the war.  waged upon us all

sister...don’t give up
mother...not on us
child...we won’t give up
la tierra...we won’t give up