Sad sentinels
Alone and lonely
The encampment long gone
That once their ancestors guarded
Where now the bears, the wolves
Antelope, elk, moose
And the people
Who hunted them
Lived on their bounty
All gone
The mountains remain
High on the horizon
Beyond these new hills
These strange straight crowded
New hills
Rank upon rank
Of these new hills
And the once new people
Who made them
Felling the forest
Killing the old people
Burying their land in concrete and steel
Until only these few remain
These sentinels of memory
Hanging on
Never thriving but
Never dying
These city trees
