deepundergroundpoetry.com
APACHE
In middle school it was, as I recall
When I first saw him on the playground race.
A band of other boys were chasing him
As he was galloping the sand pit run.
I know it does, but yes, you heard me right,
This braying boy was slapping on his haunch.
That’s why I swear I heard a pony shout,
A shrill bone whistle as he whoop’d about.
The next time I was walking home from class,
I hadn’t any money for the bus.
Before I knew it there he was again
With gravel flying, barefoot, as he passed.
It's funny how much time would fly till when
He eyed me at a Pow Wow barbecue.
And circled ‘round me to the beat of drums
To show off on the day we finally met.
In senior year there was no time to waste.
He told me he had joined a month before,
Enlisting in the U.S. Army Corp,
So we would only have that night to spend.
So we went to a Taos Motel 6
Where we would absolute each other's first.
And that was last we were together since
While he was in a place that he called “Hell”.
A word insinuating all his mail,
Where after training he was sent to serve.
He wrote me every now & then from base,
And spoke about the tribe that he was from.
It wasn't till we'd been apart a while
That he could trust and open up to me
About the Mescalero blood in him,
About a dream, a warrior vision quest.
Describing how he'd never been at peace.
Was always fighting, always on the run.
Of what it meant, his burnt sienna skin.
To show he was his father’s warrior son.
And there he was so far away from me,
To, and I quote, "protect my little girl".
And all the friends and family on the Rez,
To prove an "injun’s” honor of his worth.
I tried to be supportive just for him,
But had to study, had to graduate.
Secure a pueblo place where I’d belong.
I got the word from him ‘I'm coming home’.
How would it be the moment he arrived?
We only had that single day and night.
The rest was by delivered airmail post,
And then it came, the news I fear’d the most.
It was a compound ambush where he was
Preparing for his trip back to the States.
The shrapnel sent him sudden to his death,
With others in the barracks to their fate.
And that is how he was returned to us,
A casket draped in cotton Stars & Stripes.
An "injun" who had given of his life,
The promise of a warrior’s vision quest.
Copyright©️2018 Jade Pandora. All Rights Reserved.
NaPo/GloPoWriMo 2018
When I first saw him on the playground race.
A band of other boys were chasing him
As he was galloping the sand pit run.
I know it does, but yes, you heard me right,
This braying boy was slapping on his haunch.
That’s why I swear I heard a pony shout,
A shrill bone whistle as he whoop’d about.
The next time I was walking home from class,
I hadn’t any money for the bus.
Before I knew it there he was again
With gravel flying, barefoot, as he passed.
It's funny how much time would fly till when
He eyed me at a Pow Wow barbecue.
And circled ‘round me to the beat of drums
To show off on the day we finally met.
In senior year there was no time to waste.
He told me he had joined a month before,
Enlisting in the U.S. Army Corp,
So we would only have that night to spend.
So we went to a Taos Motel 6
Where we would absolute each other's first.
And that was last we were together since
While he was in a place that he called “Hell”.
A word insinuating all his mail,
Where after training he was sent to serve.
He wrote me every now & then from base,
And spoke about the tribe that he was from.
It wasn't till we'd been apart a while
That he could trust and open up to me
About the Mescalero blood in him,
About a dream, a warrior vision quest.
Describing how he'd never been at peace.
Was always fighting, always on the run.
Of what it meant, his burnt sienna skin.
To show he was his father’s warrior son.
And there he was so far away from me,
To, and I quote, "protect my little girl".
And all the friends and family on the Rez,
To prove an "injun’s” honor of his worth.
I tried to be supportive just for him,
But had to study, had to graduate.
Secure a pueblo place where I’d belong.
I got the word from him ‘I'm coming home’.
How would it be the moment he arrived?
We only had that single day and night.
The rest was by delivered airmail post,
And then it came, the news I fear’d the most.
It was a compound ambush where he was
Preparing for his trip back to the States.
The shrapnel sent him sudden to his death,
With others in the barracks to their fate.
And that is how he was returned to us,
A casket draped in cotton Stars & Stripes.
An "injun" who had given of his life,
The promise of a warrior’s vision quest.
Copyright©️2018 Jade Pandora. All Rights Reserved.
NaPo/GloPoWriMo 2018
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