Wolf Chorus & Snake Poison: A Tribute to Simon Ortiz' work

 

Once, with pups, near Rosebud
On the Missouri river trail
Wolf sees the Monster.
Deep gray growls, dead
Muffled tar under water.

 Unktehi(1) says,
 “Drink pups!” A Snake
             Spitting
         Poison.
            White treaty
            Lies.

   The Land.
      The Lives.      
      
See it! Slithering
Among us.
See it. The Reaper.
         Glacial white
              Death.
Wolf pups fall.
Icicle ribs dusted with snow
Frozen prairie bones.
They fall
      Down
      To Earth,
      Dead Gray eyes.

Tomorrow, Tunkshila(2)  comes
Many times, Tunkshila
The Grandfather Spirit.
It will end.

Unktehi again to bones,
Lonely Badland bones.
Watch and listen, listen.
Wolf pups howl
Chorus on the wind.
Listen Mother, hold them close.

 1. Legendary Lakota / Brule water monster, its bones are the formations in the badlands. From "How the Lakota Sioux Came to be Brule as told by Lame Deer in Winner, SD 1969" (Native American Legends).
2. The Grandfather Spirit, slayer of Unktehi (Native American Legends).