Sand Creek

In wordless howling winter winds I trudge

prairie powder before dawn — Sand Creek

stands alone again, a purple mountain

between me and sundown and shame

A button bearing sadness and perspective, and

I am humbly invited as I can handle my shit, for

dreams are woven by storm and rain, headlights

of passing pickups drags me further in and down

Sound of soul departing like carbonated cans

psst psst as I live the life of moose and elk

their children and their children's children

obscured by green in spring and naked in fall

I learn that magpies speak with cloven tongues

and I whisper to the prairie let me in, let me dance

to raise a flag of nothing before blue and red and white

ensures nothing to remain, if kettles wept they would

I wonder what the world would know had magpies

never spoke, had prairie never howled, had

shame and guilt petrified like rock and passed its

fears as scars for children to uncover in the dirt

Now I slither with the snakes and I rattle as I go

so that my children may be free of guilt and

shame for what our grandfathers had done, then

lisp a mournful prayer as sand fills up my throat

- Afton Light, 2021