January 2018
I Am, We are One
Today I went for a walk
And witnessed pure beauty
I heard the most beautiful sounds
The swaying trees
To the singing birds
And the buzzing bees
The empowering stream
Composed into one symphony
And as I listen to the biology
Of this ecology
I realize everything is whole
Nothing a man nor machine
Can recompose
I am one with the earth
I feel whole
And at this moment I feel the vitality.
I feel the pulse of a heartbeat.
The same heartbeat my ancestors had.
I feel my blood flow like earth’s river and streams.
The sun’s radiant light shining through the trees giving me warmth and solace.
It’s such a relief to be free
Not only physically
but mentally and spiritually
Unbroken, uncaged
I am a native american
A dying breed
And as I take a rest from my hike
I catch myself in a deep thought
My mind is full of ideas
I know that when I write
My fingers start to bleed
Because this pen is my life
It’s my shield and my blade
And I fight, but I also protect
I love but I also respect
What I have is a sharp mind
And a deep intellect
What I ask all of you is
To disconnect to reconnect
What do you expect to gain from a piece of machine?!
Only a distraction from yourself your surrounding and other human beings
I also think what’s wrong with these people?
Can’t they see what they’re doing to the planet?
If they keep at it
She’s going to die soon
What next?
The sun? The moon?
We have to keep her healthy
We have work with her
We’re residents of this planet
We don’t own her
It’s the other way around
We need to work with nature not against it
When we first arrived on earth
We were scared of nature
Then we started to evolve
Then we wanted the world to revolve
around us
And I can’t emphasize this enough
but we need to love the world and take care of her
Or else we won’t have a home
I believe a better future
A future without dirty energy
No burning fossil fuels to make electricity
No more corporate greed
A life is more precious than a buck
A piece of paper that has no real value
Other than materialism
My mind caged in a prison
But yet many trees life’s are ended
And that where I draw the line
Homes taken from our wildlife
So many species gone extinct
Humankind got rid of wild lands in order to get more profit.
They poison our food with pesticides and fertilizers and genetically modified it.
And that’s not all…we are overpopulating the Earth and made an industrial world
Which means that there will no longer be room for wild animals and there would be no more forests
Just big ‘ol factories with a cloud of pollution
Makes your emotions
Out of proportions
Like an acidic ocean
When you think about it
Equality is what we want
No sexism
Or racism
But in order to achieve this
We need unity, solidarity
We need to destroy the walls that are dividing us
We all have a common ground
Which is a dying planet
That we need to revive
So we could thrive
And go on about our happy lives
But were so self-centered
Dismembered
So I say no! I, we will not surrender
I as a youth I want to voice my concerns
I do it through music and poems
I believe in my fellow youth
We are the future
I am the future
I am
We are one…
— Aaron Tenorio
Aaron Tenorio, aka MC Slader, is a poet and activist from Santo Domingo Pueblo. When he’s not in classes at the Santa Fe Indian School, he’s performing at shows and for the community.