COURAGE GARRIDYN HENDERSON
If this old shade house could talk
As she built up enough courage to look
I’ve been in your family
She quickly gasped,
Since before the Long Walk.
For she could not believe,
Your great-great grandmother hid
What she’d just seen.
Like a horned toad
A warrior she once knew
Beneath them rocks.
Hopped off his horse
She climbed the highest Pine
And walked our way.
Where she’d seen the nest
From that day on
Of the Red Tailed Hawk.
They rekindled their fire.
I’ve heard her recall
That was the start of how, you
Many times of how
Are able to sit around MY fire
The men in blue would say, “Get them savages, Don’t let them get away!” The hopeless children were crying, The brittle elders were yelling, Oh how did they lead the warriors astray? Left alone, the women had to fight. Somehow she managed to slip away Into the night. Her fear led her back here This is where she grew up. The green rocks on the hill Is where she laid. No one swept back around Only Silence and Darkness Oh, and Hunger for Days. Four years passed Since her happiness got stripped away. We heard the neighing of a horse
2021 RED MESA REVIEW | 27
She hid behind this post
It would probably say
