and watch the nuthatch, the goldfinch, a towhee and wren,
battle for cracked corn, sunflower and millet
while the pine siskin and the jay flit, distracted
by the Broad-winged Hawk
that will drop from the sky
like a torpedo
and prey upon
anything it snatches.
I know when it arrives
and when it has gone—
a sudden and pervasive
stillness descends
beyond the skuttle
and the flurry.
Now, generations later I listen,
as though still seated at the supper table.
Four generations’ recollections —
accounts of Wounded Knee and The Frontier Wars,
indelible, and Pine Ridge, Slim Buttes, Ghost Dance
a century or more of our nation’s accounting.
Jean Cassidy
Copyright 2019
Reference: Letters from an American – December 28,2024
Wikipedia: Wounded Knee Massacre
Photo Credit: Vernon Greeson in Unsplash
