Moon Over South Dakota  

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Grande]I once slept against the warm rocks            
of a live volcano on a Cocibolca island            
           
In exchange for my trust it presented            
a slide show of constellations unknown            
to my northern hemisphere view            
           
The moon was a silver cross cloaked            
with a Maundy-Thursday cloth            
to prevent dimming of the Universe –            
           
I never wanted to return home              
.            
           
I realized then how those islanders            
could reside in the shadow of death            
risk their lives in an unstable place            
           
That night, soaked in humid sweat            
I understood how a land could mold you            
into a person you didn’t recognize            
           
How it rose from the dirt to conquer            
blood while you dreamt, escaping pours            
until your natural scent was bedrock            
           
Until your heart became a molten            
chamber of churning magma erupting            
through the cracks of your resolve            
           
I finally understood how a person            
would be willing to die for a tiny plot              
of earth on a planet they truly loved            
.            
             
I knew while watching your plane rise              
into the atmospheric pressure of distance        
with the eastern delegation of our people            
           
That the land was centuries of DNA            
in the creating, resurrecting indigenous            
generations from a certain extinction              
           
A sentient parent gathering its offspring            
to defend all that remains of its Sacred skin          
from extraction and water from poison.              
.            
           
Tonight, the moon’s eagle-feathered            
headdress waxes over the bivouacked            
reservation awaiting the tribal war cry:              
           
“Hokahey! Rainbow Warriors of Light!      
Arise! For today is a good day to die!”            
         
~            
           
Image: Moon over Standing Rock Indian Reservation, South Dakota    
~ One Earth Sangha