DO BISON CRY:SESTINA

DO BISON CRY?:SESTINA

I

Wind daggers and ice splinters hit my eyes, no tears

Face glistens from morning dew

I choose not to blink

And I trample down prairie grasses  

Rain scarce on the prairie

Thunder rolls and life tolls for me

II

Once we were stalked they hunted me

Part of a give and take ritual no tears

Each human brought a prayer and pact across the prairie

Feet wet with river crossings and dew

Trampled and pounded all the grasses

They looked at me and didn’t blink

III

Wanderers, they did not stop or blink

Part of a mother, father, daughter, son that searched for me

They watched me slow across the prairie grasses

And only winter brought their tears

For a way to survive harsh winters frozen dew

As life begged me to slow across the prairie

IV

We Bison, like them, held vigil on fields of prairie

So, I gave my life when life became one blink

I traded it for a young girl’s eyes become dew

Nature, famine, storms and chaos slowed through me

She remained with me on my last nights’ a veil of tears

Neither hoarded nor stored more than needed of the grasses

V

The chief of our herd and of their tribe communed for days and shed no tears

Not taken lightly, not boasted about for thousands of mornings dew

Another tribe moved across the land in what seemed a blink

They wanted order, and controlled the grasses

Making room for grain, cut out the roots of the prairie

And skulls piled high of many of me

VI

Eye holes no space for tears

Bleached white too dry for dew

Sky-scrapers high in one blink

Staring out past deadened grasses

But not today, in death I live again on the whole prairie

As she looks at me.

VII

Do Bison cry? I felt no tears

Only warmth as that sweet one held me close for an eye blink

Then soft arms closed my hide around the memory of the prairie