Listening
by Holland Groves
- Far beyond the built up boulevards
of the city, there is an old Indian
crouched like a shadow to the ground,
listening for the heartbeat of the buffalo.
He won't let the scabs on his knees
dry up into dust storms
that once darkened the plains of Dakota
with herds of buffalo
stampeded over the edges of cliffs;
he won't let the palms of his hands
wave away the years
when these beasts borrowed
their meat and bones to his tribe
to orbit with the moon
across the plains.
He will only plant his ear
to the earth,
and listen to a wounded planet
whose heart has skipped a beat.
and is funded through a St. Cloud State University
(St. Cloud, Minnesota) Cultural Diversity Committee allocation.
Contributors retain all rights to their work.
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Last update: 15 July 1998
URL: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/kaleidoscope/volume4/listening.html