“Trail of Tears” by Donald Vann

Exposure

Winter just started; no shelter, no fire
Just mountains of promises broken

Thin boots, heavy burdens, the burn of the freeze
Forced from the lands of their tribal ancestors

Entropy seizes their future

As nights get longer and days get colder, melancholy can frost my mornings. Yesterday walking in the snow at the nature center I looked at feet protected by my insulated boots and flashed on a painting of the Trail of Tears that illustrates a time in the early 1800’s when the Cherokee tribe was forced to leave their lands to relocate west of the Mississippi River. The journey was brutal and thousands died of disease, starvation, and exhaustion, not to mention the loss of their homeland. I have never known raw exposure like that. Sadly, many experiencea similar crisis  today.