Oh, we love mines and clean water;
We plant plastic flowers and **** them
For hours and hours.
Our yard is a monument
To the things we hold in our hearts.
Signs of the past, signs that will last.
Mining is King
Can you imagine such a thing
As real flowers, perfuming the air
For hours and hours;
Trees for the bees,
Honey or money?
Foxes or Toxics?

Acid ain't so placid
Mines ain't so fine
Toxins aren't rockin
Sulfuric fumes or flower blooms?
Mine emissions
Are you listenen?
Cool, cool water
Couldn't be hotter.

Around the campfire we listened
To the stories
From Girl Scout Leaders, Boy Scout Leaders, Moms, Dads, Sons, Daughters
Whose lives had been forever changed through wilderness experiences in Northern Minnesota and Canadian Boundary Waters.
Humans touched by the spirit of the wild places
Inhabited by loons, bears, giant turtles, moose, and lynx.
The desire to return to this place so special that it must not be Destroyed by those who only crave to extract the minerals copper, nickel, rare metals
And leave behind contaminated waters to run to Hudson Bay,
Lake Superior, Rainy Lake
Forever leaching into the once pristine environment.
There is no other place on earth like this,
A land preserved by those who understood the importance of such Exquisite jewels that they spent their lives trying to protect it.

Sometimes our hearts are confused.
Life gives us too many choices,
Too few choices
What is the right thing to do?
Which is the path to be taken?
What should one let play in the decision?
Where will this lead me?
Is it a dead end?
I've been down that road before.
Is everything we do in life a learning experience?
Is it worth the trouble?
Would there be an easier way
To learn the same thing?
I don't know. Only God knows.