Friday, June 30, 2017

earth note 497

ouray colorado
touching the land circa 1979...2016

between the years
and many decades prior
the uncompahgre river
tried but failed to vomit & flush away
the heavy metals
the murky orange
legacy european settler poison
growing out of
and still leaching
from the mines

the horses smell it and
know better
than to drink from it

before the plunder
chief ouray and the original people
fished   hunted   farmed   protected
at least 23 million acres
every river now
weeping
from their absence

by next election
the buck will get passed
again

--- e b bortz

2 comments:

Rae Cobbs said...

I thank Least Bittern for showing me your words. The Colorado river doesn't know it is so sad and beautiful. Thank you for your writing.

e b bortz said...

thanks for reading it!