Saskatchewan

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Saskatchewan

This is where I come from
The wind here talks to me
In the voices of the vanished ones
Who settled this country
The land runs out to meet the sky
The lilies blow so free
This is where I come from
This is home to me

Stayed a night in Sintaluta
Near the Neville place
The earth is cracked and cries for rain
Reminds me of his face
He said, "We're the mountains here,
We reach into the sky"
And like that town he hangs around
Though dead he doesn't die

Prairie lilies, orange and red
I see them from the car
Get out and look for prairie smoke
The kiss of blazingstar
Each flower is a spirit
The weather could not kill
Each blossom here a victory
For blossoming at all

This is the place that taught me
To plant and tend and reap
And now the men who mentored me
Beneath the prairie sleep
Old Ida's farm was down this road
Halfway to Qu'appelle
Her eyes were deep-as-heaven blue
I'm looking in them still

I battle the mosquitos
Dried clay beneath my heel
I make a little prayer for rain
So dry here where I kneel
Trials enough to stop a man
What keeps him saying, "Go"?
Consider the lilies of the field
My brother, then you'll know

They call this place Saskatchewan
The wind here talks to me
In the voices of the vanished ones
Who settled this country
The land runs out to meet the sky
The lilies blow so free
This is where I come from
This is home to me

DL