We Have Become an Endangered Species

October 9, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is indigenous peoples in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, which was celebrated on October 8.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A poem for Indigenous People’s Day about Native Americans as an endangered species:

We have become an endangered species

Dying for lack of habitat,

Like lions, like bison, like elephants, wolves,

Restricted to government reservations.

Dying for lack of habitat,

Many have turned from our ancestors’ ways.

Restricted to government reservations,

We cannot travel the road of the seasons.

Many have turned from our ancestors’ ways

And the land that we sprang from like acorns, like berries.

We cannot travel the road of the seasons,

Cut off from its bounty by barbed-wire fences.

The land that we sprang from like acorns, like berries,

Like lions, like bison, like elephants, wolves,

Cut off from its bounty by barbed-wire fences,

We have become an endangered species.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/wehave.html. For more poems for Indigenous People’s Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Indigenous Peoples

10/8: Indians Are, of Course, Not Indians

10/9: We Have Become an Endangered Species