Grandfather, Do You Miss...
by Jade

Oh Grandfather,
Do you miss the laughter of your children
Filling your ears as they played on long summer evenings?
Do you miss, as I do, the song of the crickets
And the harmony of the frogs after the sun went to sleep?

Oh Grandfather,
Do you miss the sound of thousands of buffalo feet
As they shook the earth like the thunder you sent before the rain?
Do you miss the cries of the great eagle
As he surveyed the earth from his lofty perch and told you all his secrets?

Oh Grandfather,
Do you miss the fires that dotted the plains
And marked the spots where your children slept under the stars?
Do you miss the songs and stories that mingled with the smoke
From those fires and found their way to your ears?

Oh Grandfather,
Do you miss the pride and spirit of your warriors
As they rode off to the hunt and returned with the prize?
Do you miss the time when all your children were happy
And free to follow the paths of the Ancestors?

Oh Grandfather,
Do you miss all these things as much as your children do?
Help us to find our way back to a time when we laughed
And danced and sang and rejoiced in who we are.
Help us to find our way to believe in ourselves once again.

Spirit Voices
Copyright©1997
All rights are reserved by the author.
The Indian Burying Ground
by Philip Freneau