STRONG FEATHER BURIES THE WHITE WOMAN
As I unload each shifting, fertile clod
upon her pale remains, their thudding sound
brings to mind the pounding of that sod
upon my mother’s final resting ground.
Mother Earth, obliging, falls apart
for me. I see, instead of her I bested,
that sweet, blonde thief who cut my mother’s heart,
the one whom—all my life—I have detested.
What were the odds, that I could shoot ahead
of her, this daughter of the Nordic gods?
This educated harlot once struck dread
within me—puzzlingly. What were the odds?
If I can leave the thrill of her foul mouth
filled with my Mother’s milk, I’ll migrate south …
—from Rattle #63, Spring 2019
Tribute to Persona Poems
__________
Jennifer Reeser: “I write a considerable amount of poetry in ‘assumed’ voices. Strong Feather is an American Indian character of my own creation, the center of a collection recently completed, by the same name. I have written these in order to create a new kind of poetry, which gives voice to a long-overlooked—and under-represented—point of view, in a style which has not heretofore existed in literature.” (web)
