American Indians

West Gone

Go west
Young man
He said
But he didn’t mean it
In that he didn’t go

And in heaven
He’ll say
I wasn’t young
To which the angels
Might reply

Did you think of all the souls
Already west
Living
Hunting
Worshipping the land and sky

And he might say
I knew that
They were there
But had all these people in the east
Needing somewhere to go

The war
The horrors of the restless war
And then
The burdens in the restless peace
Thereafter

Not enough
He might be told
But enter heaven
Anyway
Where we’ll have a job for you

C L Couch

(Horace Greeley may not have been the first saying it, though he said it famously in July of 1865)

Photo by Chor Tsang on Unsplash
The Old West
[before it was new]

(x = space)

The People First

(Indigenous Peoples Day)

Today on the

Convenience of a Monday,

We acknowledge

Indigenous Peoples Day

A day for dance

For songs whose lyrics

Most of us don’t know

Set before

Except for math in certain years

The arrival of Columbus

On a day

And on that day

First time

Complicit in

The Taino

Vanishing

We inveigled

Tricked

Overwhelmed

After learning to survive

Pushed the people

Pushed our teachers

And, yes, first adversaries

Onto arid land

At last

Unless a virtue be discovered there

Then moved farther on

xxxxxArtificial islands

xxxxxAre trending;

xxxxxThe people could build

xxxxxOnto the ocean

xxxxxUnless we wanted

xxxxxSomething under

What shall we do this day?

Not give anything back,

I’m sure

Feathers

Leathers

Colors

How to live with nature

When even nature’s scant

Colors of the earth

And of fauna

Movement, teaching of the seasons

Life with the Spirit,

The hand of God that pressed

The mountains

And the valleys

Plains between,

Ridges and runnels

Of the fingers

That should be

Filled with water

Truths of land and air,

Interesting add-ons for us

Supplements for mortal life

Maybe next year’s

Vacation

What is the hope

For a people pushed

And pushed off,

As if unwanted by the created world

Yet placed onto the world

First,

First people here?

Well, there is a day

I think better have the day

Than not

It offers balance

Maybe pain with recognition

Suffering with acknowledgement

Especially against

The time to come

In two days’ time

C L Couch

Photo by Mike Newbry on Unsplash

Utah, USA

I could be sorry for the we-they attitude (and I am) except it’s what we (they) have. Hope for a day to come when we can mesh and moosh the pronouns because the better unifying has happened.