Poem: Culture

"Culture"

You can loose the land:

the buildings, the gardens,

the paved city square;

(History as my witness,
such things have happened.)

You can loose the wealthy:

the gold lost, currency gained,

and money lost again;

(Time will see to it,
if nothing else will.)

But you cannot

cannot, I repeat

loose the memories:

The language, the musics,
the past.
(Though the threads that weave the tapestry
have been much neglected of late.)

It is only when people forget

when people forget

that all is truly lost.