Red Cloud

I am warped

I am wrapped

As I warble my song

As I wobble my gait

To the edge of the Great Plain in Red Cloud

I am tainted

I am tought

To be tough

To be raw

To be ruined

To be wrecked

Like the women

Whose aching backs and blistered skin

Make me coffee and burnt bread

In Red Cloud

In Red Cloud

I am pulled

To the poppies by my pony and poison

With my pulse comes a promise

I'm a pioneer

Young girls braid their hair like straw into baskets

"With baskets come bounty"

They say, they prеy as they fall into sleep

Dream of Red Cloud

In Rеd Cloud

In Red Cloud

Of Stone and spirit I haunt the dead

My name, my lips, my swollen heart and hips

I breathe in dust and blow out steam

Like the engine that rolls on a crooked track

That hauls along lost pocket clocks and cents

Singing cycles, in my song, a loop, in ink, on my palm

The name and number I could call, to break the spell

To break the lock

This chain is linked with much more than iron and

I've watched how hot tears melt metal before

I make stew with rain water and frozen meat

Thick with pine needles, warm beer and baby teeth

I suck it down in spoonfuls

I go to sleep dumb and halved

Vibrating in circles, in circuits I wake up dizzy in

In Red Cloud

In Red Cloud

In Red Cloud