An American Tradition
Pocatello guards the gateway
to verdant plains
tight between mountains’ shadows where
frothing waters
snake through purple camas blanket.
Did this chief stand proud upon the bluff
scrying futures?
Headdress connecting cloud to earth
in premonition
of loathsome deeds and subjugation
Shoshone herded, stripped of home,
a valley laid open and crossed with iron tracks,
vulnerable to those who devour
language and culture
stealing regalia. A headdress
for the Chamber of Commerce to
don and parade
each Fourth of July, down Main Street
throwing candy
to the children lining the street
waving their fathers’ lessons.