A Gift Transformed

She was another’s before she was ours—

After millennia when she belonged to no one—
Those we supplanted inhabited her more gently
Than we who came after to build
What we had to build—to tear down
What we had to tear down—to change what
We had to change into something rich and strange—
None could possess her who were not
Possessed by her—who could only possess
Without understanding so that by our withholding
We were made weaker until we found
That by ignoring what gifts she might have given
We could conquer thereafter the depths
Of her valleys—the widths of her fields—
The heights of her mountains left undefended—
Open to pillage—such as she is—such
As she must become—as providence
Would have it under our mandate—