They yearned to feel footsteps.

Wait, said the earth.

They waited.

---

The ice melted, and the forests grew

Waiting for moccasins to step on their soil.

The leaves whispered as they fell

One by one, come to us.

---

The last icecaps stood tall

Even as mammoths lumbered over them

And into caves of crystalline ice

Dripping a patient song.

---

The desert cactus blossomed

And the rattlesnake glided across the sand

Waiting for the People to paint him

into sun-baked rocks.

---

Buffalo roamed across the plains in thousands

We are ready, they cried as one

Their voice echoed into the atmosphere

The prairies grew tall with expectation.

---

The swamps spread far and wide

Marsh-birds cried out to each other

Crocodiles drifted, peeking up at times

To see if they had come.

---

Their waiting was not in vain—

How they sang as they came!

Native drums beating strong

And children dancing across the earth.

---

Their grandchildren spread far and long

Across the great mountains, and migrated south

To the prairies and flatlands, to glorious sunsets

That crown the golden fields like kings.

---

Some roamed to the deserts

Where rainbow lizards rejoiced in the dust

And some to the marshes, where swans sang

To the yawning crocodiles in joy.

---

Some came to the forests by the eastern mountains

To breathe in the mists and scent the pines

To see their children slip through the sylvan trees

They came to the forests, and flourished.

---

Laughter and drumbeats, rattles and songs!

Heroes and wars flashed through time

Tangling in the threads from which stories are woven

So children sang of their ancestors, too.

---

A white ship drifted across the ocean.

---

Their corn crop flourished.

They danced to the rain and sang to the sun.

The earth rejoiced and returned them life.

as it felt soft footsteps, and lightly dancing feet.

---

Then the white ship arrived.

---

And now they wait again.

---

1 September 2005