In praise of wounded water bearers
Meeting prayers with grenades
on a North Dakota bridge
over water troubled
by a greedy oil snake
feasting on a 21 year old girl’s arm
And now the flesh
the stunned veins
the exhuberant nerves
that once held
bottles of water
to quench a thirst
that knows no end
can no longer bridge
thought and action
Downstream they float
buoyed by the molecules of life
singing them a song
of the Spirit
flowing as they have
since the first day of Creation.
Don’t go seeking balms in Gilead
the shapnel of wars past and present
jabbing and scarring
the lethargy of a decrepit order
as the earth deploys her children
of this seventh generation
to regain her breath and song.
Pina Piccolo, for Standing Rock