Red Cloud

I am warped

I am wrapped

As I warble my song

As I wobble my gait to the edge of the Great Plain in Red Cloud

I am tainted

I am taught

To be tough

To be raw

To be ruined

To be wrecked

Like the women whose aching backs and blistered skin make me coffee and burnt bread

In Red Cloud

In Red Cloud

I am pulled to the poppies by my pony and poison

With my pulse comes a promise

I'm a pioneer

Young girls braid their hair like straw into baskets

"with baskets come bounty"

They say

They prey as they fall into sleep

Dream of Red Cloud

In Red Cloud

In Red Cloud

Of stone and spirit I haunt the dead

My name, my lips, my swollen heart and hips

I breathe in dust and blow out steam

Like the engine that rolls on a crooked track that hauls along lost pocket clocks and cents singing cycles

In song

A loop, in ink, on my palm

The name and number I could call

To break the spell

To break the lock

This chain is linked by much more than iron and I've watched how hot tears melt metal before

I make a stew with rain water and frozen meat

Thick with pine needles

Warm beer and baby teeth

I suck it down in spoonfuls

I go to sleep dumb and halved

Vibrating in circles

In circuits I wake up dizzy In

Red Cloud

Red Cloud

Red Cloud