In eighteen hundred and thirty-eight,
tens of thousands met their fate.
Some in wagons, most by foot.
Children strapped to backs – they stood
in solemnity and pride,
till the frailest among them died.
The wife of Chief John Ross
considered her own life lost.
Her Christian life she gave
to an Indian girl she saved.
Old Man Cherokee
on the Trail of Tears.
Choctaw and Muskogee
on the Trail of Fears.
Lost to disease.
Lost to freeze
in the chill of a drizzling rain.
From New Echota
forced to walk.
Forced to be buried
where they dropped.
4000 silent graves.
4000 never found their way
to the bittersweet aroma
of Tahlequah, Oklahoma.