Vision of the Valley Don Francisco

The vision came unbidden
At an unexpected pass
Where the winds of change blew colder
Whippin' snow that cut like glass
But like an old man in regret
For foolish sins and wasted youth
The scene that lay before me
Had no beauty save its truth

For the wind came down the mountains
Never slowing, never still
And the sheep were scattered shepherdless
Alone across the hills
They were prey to every beast that roamed
And entrapped by every curse
And they stumbled in their sickness
In their weakness and their thirst

Below them in the valley
The polluted waters flowed
Where the shepherds that were hirelings
Sat and argued what was owed
And the ambitious and abusive bragged
And they boasted on their might
And their profits from the slaughter
Of the ones who could not fight