The Field of Yellow, the Field of Blue

 The earth tells the truth

the grain is true

to the soil that nourishes and the water that 

grows it, and in the stem and 

straw tells the tale

of the richness of the place:

the gold rising to the blue of a sky 

untroubled by fear and terror,

though fear and terror 

surely exist. 

I wish your skies so blue,

so clear, 

no trouble could exist even in the imagining,

I wish you fields so golden,

no one there would ever know famine,

Even though this fear is always

in the blood and muscle of our dwelling even in 

the richest time. 

The gnashing of teeth hungry for bread,

the gnawing of stomachs that have not been

lately filled. 

And I wish you would not know the tremor

of the terror by night and the sound

of the deaths you have escaped, but someone else 

surely knows. 

I do not know how to love you, but with 

baleful warnings and my entire heart. 

For if mankind suffers, we suffer all, though our experience

is not the same. 

I am bowed by your courage,

and will always recall this blue sky, these amber waves. 

This nation, made dear to me in a brutal struggle. 

I stand with you, and 

keep you in my greatest esteem. \