WOUNDED KNEE 1973 #4 (For Ida Stuntz)

Ida Mae's husband died at Pine Ridge
He had abandoned her and their two sons
To follow a golden dream of freedom
Gleaming on the horizon out of reach

He fell in a flood of perjured bullets
His young man's spirit offered one last time
In sacrifice for The People's release
From the nightmare of fermented treaties

His sons found the whiskey path to manhood
A staggering dance on the edge of clans
Whose songs are earned in sacred visions
And dances to bring back the new year's sun

A lonely widow counts her days like stars
and deadens her pain with cases of beer
And treasures her time of pure love and joy
with memories before the warrior's death