under this hot sky , poem by Ruth Harrison

--after Doug Peacock, Grizzly Years.

What we should be doing
We should be hiding the buffalo skull
from hunters who still pursue.
We should find a place in tall grass
shielded by juniper by pinon, where
no prying moneyed eye with rotors
can find and grind him to yen
We should make a place facing east.

We should honor his horns with leather, with
feathers of hawk, eagle, feathers of raven . . .
touch his bone with the red of life
of death, of the red of blood ceremony

We should add white for goodbye,
yellow of rabbit brush, and certain
black dots and prayers
We should face him east, where dawn walks
and leave him to be loved by the wind.


Published in Plainsongs, Dwight C. Marsh, Editor
Dept. of English
Hastings College, Hastings, NE