a white man's lament for mary dann :: [d. 2005] ::

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.