Did You Walk to Oklahoma?

You came        You came         from

You came from your homes Your family         Your

rivers      creeks                                                       came

with you in your blood           in your songs

the hawks        flew         inside the wings of your          voice

your voice        walked like a            deer             across the

land     your land         was a      voice walking                deep

in your blood’s wings                   to the place    awaiting

its own birth          what is born is also made                 and what

is made is earned               built                  like history

a house                    mound              hall anything we walk into

a state             perhaps          a state of being            a state still

mired in its own making     making the dead        the dead

a trail                a walk of  bones            a song of singing skin

that lives through its dying               who has not lived with your death?

Who has not lived?               You                     in the dust of your hundred

deaths               your thousandsyour deaths are the constitution

of this country              this country                  this        state

of the union                               we say to your deaths that they are ours

they are hours               days                 years                 only now lived into

a legacy            we are learning now   to live into your legacy learning

what has a state learned?        What has a death driven us to?

Let us pray to your walking    Let us walk backward to your prayers

If you are a song let us sing you        Let the dead live

                into the state               of our making