Hollow words By Richard Martin

                   HOLLOW WORDS                        by Richard Martin       12/06          151

I had a dream the other night, as I lay asleep in my bed

The spirit of an Indian chief came to me, and this is what he said

The words of this world have made me bitter, I’ve lost faith in mankind

The words they speak are hollow, and the truth is hard to find

The words they speak are many; they shift like grains of sand

Like the salt from the ocean, these words poison the land

He tells me it would be much better, to move to another land

He speaks these hollow words to me, while he’s holding my hand

I watch my people starve, while the white man’s foods are plenty

He takes our game and burns the land, and his hollow words are many

This land that I held sacred, is now a prison for all my kind

I was the chief of all my people, now I’m forbidden to speak my mind

We only wanted to live on the land, where my people lived and died

But then the white man came, and pushed us all aside

My heart is saddened, to see the white man’s plan

They took our guns and arrows, they even took our land

Someday when the spirits come and take me away

I hope there’d be no hollow words, in that land far away