COURAGE | GARRIDYN HENDERSON

COURAGE

GARRIDYN HENDERSON

If this old shade house could talk

It would probably say I’ve been in your family Since before the Long Walk. Your great-great grandmother hid Like a horned toad

Beneath them rocks.

She climbed the highest Pine Where she’d seen the nest

Of the Red Tailed Hawk.

I’ve heard her recall

Many times of how 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 She hid behind this post As she built up enough courage to look She quickly gasped, For she could not believe, What she’d just seen. A warrior she once knew

Hopped off his horse And walked our way. From that day on They rekindled their fire. That was the start of how, you Are able to sit around MY fire