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Poetry Page 3.
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LONG HAIR.
We
fought Crook upon the Rosebud,
And
laid so many low.
But
then he fled the battlefield,
And
so we let him go.
We
called a council meeting,
So
that all the tribes would come.
We
camped beside the Little Bighorn River,
Beneath
the setting sun.
The
scouts reported soldiers,
All
spoiling for a fight,
But
little did they suspect
Our
gathering and our might.
Sitting
Bull took our women
And
marched away at their head,
For
in a sacred vision
He
had seen the soldiers dead.
Out
of the village we rode
Crazy
Horse and Gull too,
Ready
to fight and die against
Those
devils dressed in blue.
Long
Hair issued orders
And
cut his force in two,
He
tried to gain the high ground
But
we knew what to do.
The
man that you called Custer
And
we called Long Hair,
Last
stood upon a hillside
And
we left him lying there.
Shunkepi
Nunpi
July
1998
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SPIRITS.
The
Spirits came and talked to me
And
told me of what was yet to be
In
a vision they showed me of things to come
Strange
men with facial hair and loaded gun.
I
am unable to change these things
To
do with life and greater things
For
the Spirits show me how to live
When
to take and when to give.
I
walk proud upon this earth
On
the plains that gave me birth
I
share my life with all around me,
For
Great Spirit can always astound me.
But
still more visions are shown to me
For
my people are like a tree,
Bending
fiercely in a stormy wind,
Struggling
in a fight it cannot win.
So
let the wind of changes blow,
For
I can feel it in my soul.
And
if my time has finally come
Let
my Spirit wander beneath the sun.
The
Spirits showed me snow upon the ground
With
all my people lying around,
All
these things were shown to me
So
bury my heart at Wounded Knee.
Shunkepi
Nunpi
February
1998
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WHY?
When
I was born
It
was within a nation.
Then
I become old
You
threw me on a reservation.
And
yet when I was a child
From
the stories I was told,
The
Great Spirit placed around us
Such
wonders to behold.
The
buffalo, deer and antelope
Roamed
the plains in such numbers,
Then
you came with smoking guns
and
destroyed them with your thunder.
You
placed me on a reservation
And
yet insisted I was free,
So
why do you now own the land
That
once belonged to me?
Shunkepi
Nunpi
January
1998
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ONE
DAY.
One
day I will go back
To
the land from whence I came,
And
try to find my homeland
To
see how much it has changed.
For
many years have passed
Since
I last stood on that earth,
The
centre of my world
And
the mother of my birth.
For
I was forced to leave it,
Weighted
down by many chains
For
what we lost as a people,
The
white man stood to gain.
For
then I was too young
To
fight them and to die,
And
although many years have passed
I
still don’t know the reasons why.
The
pain that I have carried
Burns
still within my heart,
And
throughout the distance of my life
We
have been kept apart.
One
day I will make that journey
For
my life draws near it’s end.
And
I know the land will greet me
As
a long lost friend.
Shunkepi
Nunpi
October
1998
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Copyright @ William Purcell 2002
All rights reserved.
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