Heavy rain drops.
The chill of the coming cold.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Chaak
Tok
I’Chaak
Images of the young warrior
Strung high and lifted up
Arms
Legs
Shoulders
Raised
and strung up
Chaak..
Chaak..
every drop.
My back has borne these scars.
What more, then?
There drags four skulls of the buffalo.
“You will drag them until finished,
and until ripped from your flesh,
so as to become your 4 Winds.”
The scatter-corn woman
has gathered into the lodge
and awaits the return
of the wounded warrior
come home, she says,
and tend.
and bring with you
all you saw,
and see,
and know.
The 4 Winds,
Mother Earth,
Father Sky,
O Great Spirit:
I come.
————
[Art: Mandan Okipa Ceremony, George Carlin]
