Saturday, June 8, 2013

Lizzie Red Bird

On this date
Friday December 13, 1919
Lizzie Red Bird froze to death
in the darkening winter night,
on the South Dakota plain
a prisoner of the Rosebud Reservation in
the Imperial United States,
she ran away from boarding school
with Annie Coarse Voice,
who lost her feet to the cold
& amputation frost bite survivor
long enough to face the 4-H,
the tea party set, cut your hair
pull up your skirt,
take your seat obedience,

Poor Lizzie, you only wanted
to escape that shapeless shoe-less fantasy,
office of interior design;

the snow still falls from Canada up north
I hear, lines are thickly drawn;

Were you buried, my Lizzie,
with the bars facing up or down?

4 comments:

  1. Oh this is sad, powerful, intense. I assume Lizzie Red Bird was a historical person. What a tragic occurrence.

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  2. I was watching Incident at Oglala today, so this poem spoke to me especially tonight. What a tragic story - so glad you told it here, to remember her, and the many others who suffered, as many still suffer, the injustices of our society.

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  3. This is very sad specially this part:

    Poor Lizzie, you only wanted
    to escape that shapeless shoe-less fantasy,
    office of interior design;


    And nice to meet you Tom ~

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  4. Woefully gripping. Thanks for this, Tom.

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