I Call on You – Oh, Mighty Sonoran

I Call on You

Oh, Mighty Sonoran

Oh, Mighty Sonoran,
I fight back tears
for what they’ve
done to God’s Brown Children,
Sonorans for hundreds of years,
for how they’ve
banned their studies,
lied about their heroes,
stolen books filled with their histories
like purse snatchers
abusing passers-by
on dangerous urban streets
while they cried in their classroom seats.

I wonder how such hate,
could for a moment,
foment in the human brain
when all around there lies your beauty,
in so many wondrous forms:
as mountain peaks high above the timberlines;
as hillsides of proud posturing sahuaros;
as fire breathing deserts and lazy tropics;
as grasslands and chaparral;
delightful moons;
sunsets that warm the heart;
monsoons
that flash
frightening lightning shows
that unleash crackling sonic booms.

But human ugliness reigns,
upon your vast terrain,
a strain
of irrationality
suffered by the Powers-that-be
that has metastasized
into a real fear that God’s Brown Children
will discover truths
that might set them free
to think,
to analzye,
to strive
to enrich their communities
as they better their lives.

So, I call on you,
oh, Mighty Sonoran.
I call on you
to give the children
wings to fly
high above the hysteria,
with ease,
as they please
like desert birds
riding in the currents
of your gentle breezes.
I call on you
to infuse them
with compassion
for their fellow human beings,
able to reach out
far and wide
like the ferocious flames
in your runaway fire storms,
like the relentless forces in your
dust devils and whirlwinds
that fill spaces
and crevices
that are open to them.
I call on you
to keep their hearts
contentrated on a world
where everyone
can realize
their hopes and dreams.
I call on you
to keep love in their bosoms
where it can radiate
like the waves of vapors
that rise from your burning floor,
bringing about a form of human respect and understanding
to your land
on a par with your masterpiece,
the Grand Canyon,
that you hold so dear.

I call on you to still my tears.