This was the ancestors’ water

Yours and mine

They protected it from harm.

Flowing clean, unimpeded

To the sea,

Sometimes it offered up richness

For they fished, they drank, they washed

In this water

Sometimes it gave too much,

Overflowed in anger, brought death

 

This was their water –

Quenching and flooding —

And they tended to its needs

And now it’s ours.

 

This was the ancestors’ air

Yours and mine

They drank it in with every breath

Sometimes it gave a soft breeze

On hot summer days

Sometimes it whipped a whirlwind

And brought down what they’d built

And snatched lives

 

This was their air –

Gentle and wild –

And they tended to its needs

And now it’s ours.

 

This was the ancestors’ earth

Yours and mine

They tended it with care

Unsure of reciprocity

For sometimes it lavished them with

Sustenance, sufficiency

And sometimes scarcity and pains

Of hunger and want

 

This was their earth —

Abundant and barren —

And they tended to its needs

And now it’s ours.

 

“And now it’s ours.” from Legacy by Nora Roberts (page 434)