Dream on Colorado,
of ruddy towers,
chiseled steeples of the martyred and maimed,
dare you forsake me,
have you forgotten my memory,
stories etched in the flesh of my earth?
Dream on, Vancouver,
for the sake of the song,
smoke woven from the pebble of your eye,
do you remember,
the choir of thundering seas,
totems lost amongst the colors of our harbor?
Dream on, Susquehannock,
breathe away the neon lights, your torment,
wallow upon the mountaintops,
cleanse graves from the sorrow,
where you will labor when your work here is done?
Dream on, Tallulah,
Sawgrass, clamshells, cotton chains
Pray for fields of indigo and rice,
Have the branches of the magnolia,
Gleaned the pleasures of the harvest
Without a cry?
Dream on, Kootenai,
Trout eyes and bottles,
Scrap silver and Winchester shells,
Spent on silhouettes of claw and sinew,
Your tracks swept away by the tides of men,
Have you run the length
Of the call of the loon?
Dream on, Penobscot,
Child of broken-back winters,
Grace of firs and granite,
Hunted by axeheads and wool,
Who will listen when our antlered
Saint is felled?
Dream on, Shenandoah,
dream of milky mountains,
winding tunes, keening voices,
pleading, rising, from palaces of clapboard
and leather. Iron, could you sing me those same songs today?