Good Day, Passer-by

featured in the book Good Day with the art of Gale Whitman

Good day, Passer-by,
I watch you pass.
I am pleased when you stop.

Good Day, Passer-by

Bob Komives

 

You see us all around
as you build your city on our ground.
Perhaps because we do not flee
you think us to be thriving.
But we have lost
ninety-nine percent of our land,
ninety-nine percent of our home ground,
the great North American Prairie
where we build and maintain our towns,
where we built cities 
before your species came around.
If we look proud,
we are proud.
Wherever Buffalo roamed we built homes.
We made the great prairie what it was
and can be.
We till the land,
propagate grasses,
release our homes to burrowing owls,
insects,
snakes,
countless species
who do not know how to make a home
unless first we develop the land.
We install utility,
maintain ability
of prairie to be prairie.

Good day, Passer-by.
I am pleased when you stop.
I am Prairie Dog,
a rodent with complex language,
sophisticated society,
commitment to family.
I am your good neighbor.
I know to live with you.
Can you learn and live with me?

I do not care for the eagle,
nor the hawk,
ferret,
coyote,
fox,
nor wolf.
They have taken away family
and want to prey upon me.
Yet I have learned to live with them.
They depend on me.
I am great prairie's great friend.
If you are fond of eagle,
remember me;
I am your great eagle's greater friend.

I am prairie citizen.
On the last one percent of my homeland
I can live with you.
The prairie is passing, Fellow Citizen.
It will slow as you stop,
and it will grow when you show
you can live with me.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2002 :: Good Day, Passer-by :: 0214