We may claim that we own the land and from land ownership we gain
But the land is only our land for as long as the life in us remain
But our land we can't take with us when we cease to live and die
And the one with the deeds to ten thousand acres is a mortal as am I.

We may think the land is our land but thought has proved us wrong
The land it was always here and to none the land belong
The land ours only for a short span and then we pass it on
And someone else will hold the deeds to it when the life from us has gone.

Humans are like Nature's Seasons to life we come and go
And our right to land ownership on paper we may show
Our land on paper only it is not ours to keep
Someone else will own the deed to it when we lay in eternal sleep.

We may have the legal document to prove it and we may say the land is ours
And we may claim to own the grass on it and we may claim to own the flowers
But we are the land's caretakers for awhile just that and nothing more
And what I've spoken of here has often been said before.

Francis Duggan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/our-land-on-paper-only/