here

i can hear you
crawling up and down the stairs
back behind the kitchen
in your worn out winter boots
there's nothing else to do today
why don't we sit and while the time away
there's nothing on tv
except that which comes from far away
aren't you glad the good weather's here to stay?
maybe we can go up the creek
see some friends
and go fishing on the way
make sure we stop at auntie's on the way back
she likes to have visitors
she sits in the kitchen with charlene
and plays cards all day
i'm gonna buy some beer today
with some money
that i saved up from those jobs
i went and did painting houses
maybe we can have some fun
get some friends to join us
being drunk ain't much fun when you're alone
if you want
we could get some food in town
or maybe
just go to a relatives
i think our refridgerator's broken
the only thing left in there
is moldy bread
and a little bit of dried up lettuce
that i think came from a food bank or a potluck
someday i wish
that i could go away
maybe south to some big city
i don't know where
get away from all this place
then i think
of all my friends
and remember
what happened to everybody else
who went down to the cities
and then i think
about what my family would do
when i wasn't here
i think i'd get too damn lonely
and get drunk too much
and not go to work
cause i'd miss everybody too much
i think i'll stay here
even though some say it's hard
but i gotta disagree
cause this is where i'm from
and this is where
my people are from
so i think that i just stay.
i don't know what i should do
because we get told
to go south and get work
or go to the mines farther up north
i just don't know
those places seem so far away
it's kinda scary
goin to a place where there's nobody you know
and nothing looks the same
my uncle went to saskatchewan
and said that he never saw a forest
and i don't know what i'd do
if i stopped seeing the things i know
i don't know what i'd do
they keep coming round
asking us to come to church
go to school
get a job
go to town
why can't they leave us alone?
why can't they see we're just as happy here?
that studying foreign history doesn't expand your mind
that working for some strange goal doesn't make you better
that leaving where you're from can't help you get ahead
i just wanna do what my elders taught me
go by the land
live my life a good way
know the traditions that bind the earth
not what they teach you about in picture books
i don't belong
in the white man's town
i'll stay here on the rez
and learn my own ways
i need to understand myself
before i can learn the ways
of someone else
and i just don't know if they understand
when will they ever?
i don't want to hurt myself
or hurt you
there's just nothin else to do
drinking kills
slowly
but like i said before
there ain't much else to do
there's only so much that you and i can do
to change what's going on
i don't think that we can ever stop
the people from going and drinking in the bars
there's just too much pain to deal
they need something to keep going in the day to day
but it's sad
maybe one day it will all disappear
and leave us all alone
so that we can get back to our ways
before we had to change
and learn to live the ways of the white man
and lose the knowledge that we already had to survive
the truth is already written in the history books
there's nothin we can do bout that now
just gotta go on
and keep trying
somethings may change
while others stay the same
i wish that i could make it easier
for everyone
so that we don't have to suffer anymore
and forget about the past
even though that never seems to make the pain go away
can even make it worse dependin how you look at it
and make it so
that there doesn't need to be people chasin after us all the time
or special scary government departments
and i don't need a welfare check
and have to worry about whether i can get a job
because of the way i look and how i can't change that
someday i hope
that things will get better
and we won't have the things to do now
just to get by with life itself
but in the meantime
maybe we can find something good.