The Land Still Remembers
Artwork by Merrell Hatton
The land still remembers what people do not,
It remembers battles fought and bloodshed,
Fallen tears and fallen soldiers,
Shots fired and shots returned,
It remembers the lives given and the lives taken,
The land still feels what people have forgotten how to feel,
It still feels the blood seeping into the soil,
The soldiers falling, shot dead, onto its ground,
Shots fired into trees that still feel the pain,
Pain that ran with the rivers bloodstained,
The land still hears what people are no longer able to hear,
It still hears final screams of men shot down by the “enemy,”
Shouts of generals commanding their brigades,
Call for aid from the wounded,
The tears of widows, who lost too much,
Even though people have forgotten,
The land still feels,
The land still hears,
The land still remembers.