The Trail of Tears

I look to the long road behind

My heart is heavy with my people's sorrow

Tears of grief I weep - for all that we have lost

As we march ever farther from the land of our birth

On the Trail of Tears 

Mile after mile and day after day

Our people are fewer with each rising sun

Disease and starvation they take their terrible toll

And though we suffer still we march on

On the Trail of Tears 

I watch my beloved weaken and fall

Upon the road like so many before

With tears in my eyes I hold my wife to my breast

And in my arms she breathes her last

On the Trail of Tears 

Mile after mile and day after day

We march to a land promised us for all time

But I know that I can no longer go on

I know that is a land that I shall never see

On the Trail of Tears 

As my body - it falls to embrace the earth

My spirit - it soars to greet the sky

With my dying breath am I finally set free

To begin the very long journey towards home

On the Trail of Tears 

Brian Childers

FOR NOVEMBER,THE MONTH OF NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE