People Like Us

[Rootsie]

There have always been people like us.
On an oasis
Back a thousand years
One hundred thousand
Camel caravans converge
A gathering of the tribes.
We have always made fires together
To sit around and talk around and dance around
And sing.
We have always lived simple
In open places
Giving thanks and praises.
We have always held our children
In the center of the circle,
All  of them our children.
And age upon age
We are always tagged for slaughter
They have tried to rub us out
Don’t doubt it we are dangerous
With our wild hair and loose limbs
Walking working dancing standing  
Always saying YES
and then YES again

Who the first man
Who greedily decreed
This patch of earth or that
His alone?
Who built a wall and an army
Then to defend it? Whose ‘no’ echoes
On the canyon walls
Of this vast waste?
We always have been
The potentest threat to his claim
And he knows it.
For we are stewards,
We understand relation,
interpenetration
O we are sexy!
We live in plenty
On next to nothing
For always
We have each other.
And although every time
We are mowed down
Or picked off one by one,
We are a tough, profuse, and vibrant weed-
We keep coming back,
Always have
Always will.
See, we win.
There have always been people like us.