Cherokee Rose

                   Cherokee Rose

                   Were their dreams left scattered
                   on the walk to Oklahoma,
                   or did their spirits wander
                   with each denial of their clan?
                   How many died of sorrow,
                   the journey long in coming,
                   forced to leave behind them
                   another native land.

                   Within the rules of taking,
                   a greater greed was profered.
                   For every tear surrendered,
                   another was soon to be.
                   Across a bitter landscape,
                   to a life they had not wanted;
                   leaving behind their honor
                   for a world that would be free.

                   Were passions so upsetting
                   as to threaten laws unspoken,
                   e'er strangers would betray them,
                   in their lust to make a claim?
                   Instead, these broken warriors
                   were refused their rightful haven,
                   freedoms long since parted,
                   when anger bespoke their name.

                   The trail of tears still wanders
                   'cross mountains and lonesome valleys;
                   e'er time would ease their suffering
                   with ancient regrets to flow.
                   A sad refrain for progress;
                   some would die and some would bury,
                   the best of their kind remembered
                   in tears of the Cherokee rose.

Author's Note: No better symbol exists of the pain and suffering of the "Trail Where They Cried" than the Cherokee Rose. The mothers of the Cherokee grieved so much that the chiefs prayed for a sign to lift the mother's spirits and give them strength to care for their children. From that day forward, a beautiful new flower, a rose, grew wherever a mother's tear fell to the ground. The rose is white, for the mother's tears. It has a gold center, for the gold taken from the Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem that represent the seven Cherokee clans that made the journey. To this day, the Cherokee Rose prospers along the route of the "Trail of Tears". The Cherokee Rose is now the official flower of the State of Georgia.

© Copyright 2007 Tornado Day (UN: tornadoday at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Tornado Day has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.