because of you
the maladies of stolen land :
absconded
infested
uranium-raped :
smite the wasichus
one last time
with the whip of their own
shame :: grandmother :
whispering shoshone
ghosts have welcomed you
to a place where there is
no more land but also
no more theft or
poisoned water :
larcenous fences :
bleeding soil :
bitter gray sky filled
with hard mutating rain ::
the wasichus
took what you had but
missed your brave wise
earth-soul :: grandmother :
you are a pure
crusading presence now ::
so what is there to bury
with all this ceremony but
a breath of ancient
smoke :::
* * *
Crusading sisters: Environmental and land rights activists Carrie and Mary Dann of the Western Shoshone Nation on their Nevada ranch in 1979.
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