Gertrude Bonnin (1876-1938),
also known as Zitkala-Sa ("Red Bird" in Lakota)
Zitkala-Sa. "Why I Am a Pagan."
Atlantic Monthly 90 (1902) read it here
Sioux City
Mama/Her Terminal Words
I am the holy
mother of buffalo
anxiously artfully
curbing my appetite
herding my loss in
a field full of loco weed
up to my rump roast
in glory I roam
through each mystery.
Once when time was
pregnant with time and
space could be bought
in a bottle
I filled mine
with painted sand but
the cactus refused to
grow cause it didn’t like
my uncouth attitude.
The telephone rings
the fly relocates
I sit in my chair
undone silent
night of garbage
the radio plays
my children eat frozen
potatoes and fish up
debris from the river.
I remember
waiting for a bus
in the rain I wore
my feather up-side-down
and passed my pipe
to strangers who came
untamed from places
I never heard of
I never heard of
Down at the depot
drinkin sledge hammers
I danced a war
like nobody’s business my
feet beat the asphalt my
voice cracked the sky when
out in the downpour I
said for the last time
I am the holy
mother of buffalo.
by Leo
by Leo
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