Renaissance Land
by Andrew Calhoun, written on Matinicus Island 2017, based on Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
Out here in Renaissance land
A tardy reconnaissance man
Brought blueprints to the plan
Packed up in a prospecting pan
O and what’s for breakfast?
O and what’s for lunch?
Can you guess the next question?
O mercy, Captain Crunch
I had a ditch to wallow
I had a storm to fend
I had a prince to follow
And yet a fence to mend
Out here in Renaissance land
There's nothing left to borrow
Out where the heart’s been had
Where now there’s only sorrow
No reason to be sad
You lost in hesitation
To look before you leap
The dream was dead already
Before you fell asleep
It’s only for the pleasure
A strip show for the blind
We wander from the treasure
We ever seek to find
Out here in Renaissance land
And oh my father’s sins
And oh my mother’s merit
Praise the humble thing
That nothing will inherit
The name of glory hostage
The shuffle in the tongue
The shifting of the language
The hanging days begun
We want what you got
The beauty and the sum
A blessing from your bloody throat
Your promise peace will come
Out here in Renaissance land