Faded years ago
fat & sacred magpies
gnashed yuwepooee berries
on the shaded eastern end
of the buckbrush & I joined
them, toying with red fruit.
Sated, Messiah’s birds fled
& I followed, my voracious
wings flinging me far from
my home of eighteen years.
I circled clouds for decades
until I fell to the dry bones
of the Dakotas & made from
memory, a replica of home.
I became a citizen of my heart
& turned as gray as the lie
that at any day I could scrape
all the asinine clichés & excuses
from my old tongue, cook them
down in a silver spoon, resurrect
my wings & magically flap back
to the ghost clouds of childhood.
for Sassy