Still Cherokee

A light rain fell
All day
And through the night
Turning to periodic drizzle
The following day.

Several times
I stepped onto my porch
Face toward unbroken clouds
Spreading my hands
Like wings of the owl
Turning in slow circles
Eyes and mouth wide open.

Neighbors surely thought me
Daft.

There are times
The Cherokee
Surfaces
Requiring connection
To weather
Sun and moons.

A circling red tailed hawk
Wings spread against
Rising thermals
Enraptures me.

Budding grain
Background to
A red wing black bird
Perched on a wire fence
Causes me to pull my truck
To the roadside
To exult in the ordinary miracle
Of the common.

Fields of spring wildflowers
Corn blue
Swaying softly in a morning breeze
Dance with me
In choreography as
Simple and elegant
As any Broadway production.

I wear boots
Not moccasins
My hair is cut short
Not flowing
But I still have a Buck knife
And beaded vest.
I still wear a wide-brimmed hat
And sing Amazing Grace
In the old tongue*
I still hear the flute
And drumbeat.

I am still Cherokee.


* U ne la nv i u we tsi
I ga go yv he i
Hna quo tso sv wi yu lo se
I ga gu yv ho nv

A se no i u ne tse i
I yu no du le nv
Ta li ne dv tsi lu tsi li
U dv ne u ne tsv

E lo ni gv ni li squa di
Ga lu tsv he i yu
Ni ga di da ye di go i
A ni e lo hi gv

U na da nv ti a ne hv
Do da ya nv hi li
Tsa sv hna quo ni go hi lv
Do hi wa ne he sdi

(When the Cherokee were ejected from Georgia by the US gvt. in the brutal winter of 1838-39, and their dead lay unburied along the infamous "Trail of Tears," Amazing Grace became their unofficial national anthem. It was then, as now, sung by the Cherokee as a dirge.)