April 17: Long Red Butte

Long Red Butte

The long red butte says,

“Here I am!”

Whatever you think,

I don’t give a damn.

You can say whatever you want to say.

If I’m too rugged for you,

Find some other way.

The long red butte says,

“This is me!”

This is the way I’ve come to be.

It’s not the way

I’ve always been;

Shaped by water; by the ice and the wind.

I am the grandeur

that yet remains;

The remnant of what was a lake or a plain,

Lifted up by tectonic force

Which  altered what had been the usual course;

A change in ecology; change in the weather

A change in the landscape, now and forever

But the record remains, where I stand like a giant;

Unprotected, but I’m still defiant!

And you’re free to see me

 as a tragic hero

Who knows he will one day

dwindle to zero,

But I don’t sweat the changes, because they happen slow.

People live and die,

and many storms blow,

Settlers pass through, and then they’re gone

Wars may be fought, but I still live on.

Though rocks be jarred loose from a rumbling train,

Most of my body will still remain,

But when they finally bring me down to my knees,

This scrub will be forest

With wide-branching trees,

And that’s a future

I’m willing to face.

‘Til then I’ll be proud

to be holding my place.

I’m life’s changing expression,

But my roots are down deep.

Under pasture and farms,

 I may seem to sleep,

And though wind and rain may grind me to dust,

It’s rock that comprises most of the crust,

Shaped and molded

from earth’s various forms,

From rock and water,

all life is born.

You may see my beauty but ask,

“What’s the use?”

“I am that I am!”

I don’t need an excuse.