House of Cards

White picket fences
Next to the sprawling bustle of progress
Large metal fencing surrounds the tradespeople
Working steadily away on a new project
Designed by engineers and architects
Dreamt up in boardrooms
By planners and entrepreneurs.
Visionaries of the future
Investing in a place taken over long ago

We were living side by side for a time
Until it all fell down like a rickety house of cards
Built on lies and broken promises.
Only a matter of time before the wind spoke
And blew it all off of its foundation
Ripping away the shaky base
Flimsy paper cards that promised to respect
The people already here
To honor their ways of caretaking the land.

They soothe the open wounds of the earth
With their breath
Soft and sweet like lemongrass
It calms me.
Brings a sense of certainty and purpose
As it scatters the papery foundation
And we spread out like a fine dust
Like ash
Settling after a fiery volcanic explosion
Just blowing in the wind across the land
Gently falling down into tiny settlements
Parceled out by a selfish and greedy crown.