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
Published 21st Apr 2018
Author's Note
This is my Day 21 in this year’s April NaPoWriMo.
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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21st Apr 2018 3:05pm
your story poems are the absolute best - the "volta" at the end brought tears - even though I anticipated its arrival. you are true wizard with your words - "the Muse is strong in this one..." if I might paraphrase.
Trilogy -
Now to catch up...
Trilogy -
Now to catch up...
Gosh tommy, you know how I feel about your words when we spoke to each other real time earlier yesterday. More than I had hoped for, and I tearfully thank you again.
-~Tiger
-~Tiger
Anonymous
- Edited 30th Jan 2023 2:45pm
21st Apr 2018 3:55pm
<< post removed >>
Dearest harleea, it’s been many hours since I read your words and found myself with eyes closed feeling my answer inwards.
You honor me, and I thank you. The voice of a hundred tribes that run through me are chanting throatily; the womens’ rapid “na na na na na na na na na ieee...”
🦅
🦎
You honor me, and I thank you. The voice of a hundred tribes that run through me are chanting throatily; the womens’ rapid “na na na na na na na na na ieee...”
🦅
🦎
Well written story - poem , Jade ;
And I understand his spirit , and the power of that ancestry ;
I lived in the mountains outside Taos , in the late 1970's ;
Then , in Arizona , and ended up in two places , one , where at
the edge of the property , you crossed a dry arroyo bed , and
you were in Mexico , a short ways from Cochise's Stronghold ;
Then , while the rest of a small "commune" lived in the main
house on the flat desert , I lived 6500 ft in the mountains , in
a 100 year old goatherder's cabin , no electricity , 12 miles
from anyone else...
My water came from a cave that was part of a back fill to an
old hand dug mine shaft , and the water filtered through a
hundred foot tall limestone cap , on top of a sandstone mountain ;
Coyotes adopted me , and my neighbors were rattlesnakes , scorpions ,
mountain lion , eagles , hawks , big horn sheep , horned owls , vultures...
When I got my water , I had to travel up the mountain , in sandals , or
being daring sometimes barefoot across sharp rock beds , then up
two miles to where the water was...on goat paths about two feet wide ,
with 1,000 ft drops...that was where I also bathed , and where the animals
all came to drink...
On the rocks were rattlesnakes , and giant tarantula wasps...and tarantulas...
I slipped in and out between them when I had to , and learned the art of stillness
from the tarantula wasps that did land on me...
This was my experience of a storm I was in up there ;
No electricity , I was in the clouds , literally...could see forty
miles in three directions...I took off all my clothes , tore eyelets
out of my sneakers , and stood outside feeling everything
building , and then the hair stood up on my arms , like it just
did now from the memory , and the storm hit CRRRRAAAAAKKK !
I saw the lightning come from the ground , lit through the clouds ,
the air was electrified all around me , and the rain started pouring
down sheets of rain , blinding me , and the coyotes who adopted
me up top of the mountain were howling , and the cabin was on
the edge of a precipice , a thousand foot drop on three sides ,
only maybe ten feet separating me from the edge , and the lightning
kept striking over , closer and closer then it hit feet away , and I
was the lightning , the power running through me , and I was a
god of the rain , the thunder , the lightning !
The point is , his people , who lived there long ago , free , not on some
white man created reservation , lived a harsh desert life in certain ways...
You had to be aware at all times , and be in your power , and call on the
powers , at the top of the mountain , and be one with the elements to
survive , and if you ate the sacred medicine of peyote , and met the
spirit , you were said to be "getting well" if you got sick , this was the
life of one on the vision quest...away from all people , to come to terms
with oneself , fear , and death in body...
I am sorry he did not get that chance...but , as you know his people were
warriors , and that is how he chose to live...he is now in good hunting grounds ,
dancing and singing , and living with the ancestors...
Hokahey , It Is A Good Day To Die !
This was my backyard , over a long mountain range :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiricahua_National_Monument
And I understand his spirit , and the power of that ancestry ;
I lived in the mountains outside Taos , in the late 1970's ;
Then , in Arizona , and ended up in two places , one , where at
the edge of the property , you crossed a dry arroyo bed , and
you were in Mexico , a short ways from Cochise's Stronghold ;
Then , while the rest of a small "commune" lived in the main
house on the flat desert , I lived 6500 ft in the mountains , in
a 100 year old goatherder's cabin , no electricity , 12 miles
from anyone else...
My water came from a cave that was part of a back fill to an
old hand dug mine shaft , and the water filtered through a
hundred foot tall limestone cap , on top of a sandstone mountain ;
Coyotes adopted me , and my neighbors were rattlesnakes , scorpions ,
mountain lion , eagles , hawks , big horn sheep , horned owls , vultures...
When I got my water , I had to travel up the mountain , in sandals , or
being daring sometimes barefoot across sharp rock beds , then up
two miles to where the water was...on goat paths about two feet wide ,
with 1,000 ft drops...that was where I also bathed , and where the animals
all came to drink...
On the rocks were rattlesnakes , and giant tarantula wasps...and tarantulas...
I slipped in and out between them when I had to , and learned the art of stillness
from the tarantula wasps that did land on me...
This was my experience of a storm I was in up there ;
No electricity , I was in the clouds , literally...could see forty
miles in three directions...I took off all my clothes , tore eyelets
out of my sneakers , and stood outside feeling everything
building , and then the hair stood up on my arms , like it just
did now from the memory , and the storm hit CRRRRAAAAAKKK !
I saw the lightning come from the ground , lit through the clouds ,
the air was electrified all around me , and the rain started pouring
down sheets of rain , blinding me , and the coyotes who adopted
me up top of the mountain were howling , and the cabin was on
the edge of a precipice , a thousand foot drop on three sides ,
only maybe ten feet separating me from the edge , and the lightning
kept striking over , closer and closer then it hit feet away , and I
was the lightning , the power running through me , and I was a
god of the rain , the thunder , the lightning !
The point is , his people , who lived there long ago , free , not on some
white man created reservation , lived a harsh desert life in certain ways...
You had to be aware at all times , and be in your power , and call on the
powers , at the top of the mountain , and be one with the elements to
survive , and if you ate the sacred medicine of peyote , and met the
spirit , you were said to be "getting well" if you got sick , this was the
life of one on the vision quest...away from all people , to come to terms
with oneself , fear , and death in body...
I am sorry he did not get that chance...but , as you know his people were
warriors , and that is how he chose to live...he is now in good hunting grounds ,
dancing and singing , and living with the ancestors...
Hokahey , It Is A Good Day To Die !
This was my backyard , over a long mountain range :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiricahua_National_Monument
22nd Apr 2018 5:04pm
Your story runs from the minutiae of perceptions from initial attraction to the depths of loss, layers of growth, securing reader investment in each ascending rung. Whiiiich naturally yields a devastating impact when the turn and fall pops. Thank you for sharing something that must've been infinitely harder for you to experience.
22nd Apr 2018 8:57pm
Thank you, Loki (if I may), for coming over to my world for a read.
And, it’s nice to meet you.
And, it’s nice to meet you.
22nd Apr 2018 5:11pm
Wonderful write,great story, excellent feelings turned.
through mail, through one night of Love, and feelings hung out to dry on a clothesline, baking in the sun.
an end that almost seems wished but dreamed of.
well penned Jade.
through mail, through one night of Love, and feelings hung out to dry on a clothesline, baking in the sun.
an end that almost seems wished but dreamed of.
well penned Jade.
26th Apr 2018 1:02pm
Thanks so much, Samael - I missed seeing this comment come in but now I'm here and saying you really do justice when your comments are so supportive of my work.
