Upstream

Every night we see the moon
Ascending from the earth
Each new day we rise up
To watch the sun’s rebirth
Every month the old moon wanes
To give the new moon way
Every year the salmon
Return to Bristol Bay

Past the shoals and the rapids
Where the currents run strong
Past a hundred different dangers
That make the odds so long
No matter how impossible
Their ancient journey seems
The salmon swim upstream

If you were a new born salmon
If you had your say
Would you think it worth the effort
To even swim away
Knowing the statistics
Everybody learns
Of all the millions that are born
Only one or two return

We are like the salmon
Yet not like them at all
They number in the millions
Our numbers are small
At the end of their journey
Not one is left alive
We too are endangered
Yet we will survive

Past the mining corporations
Whose millions make them strong
Past the paid up politicians
Who string us along
No matter how impossible
Our way to victory seems
We fight our way upstream