MENTAL

I am the buffalo.

She left when they came to slaughter her.
She let them move across the land, burning what was our world.
Because she knew, she’d come back in a form they could not control, slaughter or break. She watched as the people cried, and the little ones died.
Tongues were drying of their vibrant languages.
Family ties broken by divisions incomprehensible to a rational mind.

She died.
The people suffered behind her. Recalling her name and all that she provided.

Her return could not be in a form as it was, the world she knew had changed, pieces survived,
the people survived, children, reborn, languages and corn emerging again...
she felt it coming and heard her song being sung, by the young, in a lodge just like the old one she knew, old songs, new voices, old customs new hands, welcoming her home.

Your prayers are heard, she said. I will not leave you again, I will live inside of all of you, and my spirit will split and embrace your own. Look how we have grown.
It’s good to see you smile again, it’s good to hear your songs again,
and it’s good to know we’re whole again.

She’s back, inside of me. I do not cry anymore, for all that was lost, I know now I survived the frost. I never died, though the battle was fierce, I am blessed again with this flesh I sacrifice through the pierce.

I am the buffalo, I will not leave again, they cannot break me, burn me, slaughter or control me, my heart is my fuel, intellectual strength my energy
my spirit is free to begin again.

We are alive, listen to us sing, feel the power of our drum, we stand in unison reaching our hands up to the sky, welcoming the spirit of revolucion.