WAR SONGS

It was at the great camp three miles long  
that we came together to prepare  
with war songs, sun dance visions & smokes.  
  
The lodge poles numbered like stars, & the  
herds of ponies, from distant ridges,
reminded the bluecoat Crow scouts of  
 
worms in the grass of rolling plains that  
rippled in the heat, while campfire smoke  
rose lazily by the river’s bend.    
 
Men painted themselves with half-faces,  
white hail stones, jagged red lightning bolts.    
 
Women gathered children & struck camp  
as warriors on their painted ponies  
rode off, horsetails and feathers waving.  
 
Eagles fly beyond sight, into the  
dust of the enemy, where it is  
a good day to die.  
 
 
 
 
The image is of the figure of an indigenous Native American male.  The figure is made of polymer clay (fired in a kitchen gas oven) and painted with acrylics.  Both figure & image by me, Jade Pandora.