Poem – As the Land Slides

As the land slides and the ground gives way.
What once was stable begins to sway.

What will come is what always appears.
Change is the doorway to joy and tears.

We must learn to remember to stay alert at all times.
Because even if you intend those mountains to climb.

The ground under your feet is not stable or sure.
Life is a journey that at times one must endure.

There are those that will have to learn of the cruelty they hold inside.
There are those that must watch and bear witness to that tide.

Wisdom steps back as the ground becomes a slippery sight.
Choices are made that make what comes next, a fight.

The best choice is to step back and let them see.
That what they thought could never really be.

It is through our choices and the outcomes that we eventually learn.
That is why today, step away as they set a fire to burn.

I have watched this scenario throughout endless ages past.
I know when the dye has been finally cast.

While I walk back into the forest that is my home.
I understand that there are those that this path must roam.

But I am too old to play this ancient game.
I came for the hope to expand and exclaim.

That the only way to survive times of unstable ground.
Is to stand on the bedrock of truth that is forever sound.

And that truth is to never do any harm.
To take care of the land and to grow things on my farm.

~Suzanne Wagner~