Lyrics

The Memory of Water
by Camelia Jade

deep within a memory
water drew the names
knowing not, North or South

reading the touch of canyon walls
speaking from the river’s mouth

the world turns its face
as we overturn the earth
another place collapses beneath our weight

there’s money to be made
from the heart of someone else’s land
most would never leave their homes
if they could just push back our heavy hands

the price of our dreams
topped with barbed wire

I sing to the names (lost)
in the sand …

I carry you across
I carry you with me
Coconino, Tarahumari.

Oh how they fear the ones who are truly free

rising like water over snakes and spines
over the open sky

the place that you were born,
do you still speak the names?
Cohonino, Tarahumara ...

would you hold your tongue
beneath a thunder cloud
and pray

for all of the lines that we carefully paint
to be washed away?