Iroquois Warrior

--original image--

War whoops, loud and close
Heart pounding, muscles tight
Breathing slowly, with control
Eyes flickering sideways, keeping him in focus--
Sudden movements, a flash of blood,
Staring down into a dead man's eyes
Knowing he watches as I ride.
They all do.






























The night was long and dark,
Echoing with sounds
And movement and life--
Wolves following the scent of prey,
The panther on the prowl,
Young possums nosing in the grass
And the hawk silently waiting,
Eyes glittering in the moonlight.

The old warrior roused himself,
Without a sound gathering his blanket
Around the stones and arrows.
A moment later, no sign remained
That he had ever existed.

The dreams.
They came every night now,
Not haunting, yet not calm;
A mixture of the excitement of battle
And the resignation of death
As the end of all things.

The old warrior had passed on
Every lesson he had ever learned
On the fields of both battle and beast.
He rested in the confidence
That his sons were well prepared
For life without him.

The long, patient knowledge
That he would go, he must go,
Had never brought him a moment's hesitation
In all the days and years leading up to this moment.
 And, in the end,  still it was not he
But she, who broke, allowing
The tears to fall--
She who was from a people
Both proud and strong.

He would die a warrior's death,
Winning the final battle,
Yet losing his life doing so;
And thus both the defeated
And the victor be.

The night was long, and dark
When a warrior rose, and fell
Passing from flesh and blood
Into images long remembered,
Shared among his people
As stories told on firelit nights,
The memory of his bravery
And quiet strength revered
By a people both proud and strong.

Reviews

[Mark]

You have managed to capture the feel of the Native American
people of this land of ours. This is a soulful write.the depth in which they lived in the world is far different than our own, and you have managed to tap into that. Very nicely done!

[Ufi Auttorri ~ UfoAutho..]

Aya egi ayohuhisdi. Aya agoti ayohuhisdi. Aya ayano duhasata.

[catofjade]

Damn....where did I leave that Enigma Code Machine???? I bet the folks at SETI know, but they're always so "out there".......

[Ufi Auttorri ~ UfoAuthor]

OK, you inspired it with this piece. BTW, it's the first review I've ever tried to write in Cherokee! O_O I'll let you figure out how to translate it.. it'll be good exercise for my upcoming response to your Writer's Challenge! ;-)

[catofjade]

Cherokee! How on earth would I know that? I actually did try to translate it out of Iroquois, however, since the poem is called "Iroquois Warrior"!! Ahem, I am 1/8 Iroquois, by the way, along with Irish, Italian, French Canadian Gypsy (yeah baby!), so lemme ask: are you really Cherokee? Or just Cherry and Free?

[Ufi Auttorri ~ UfoAuthor]

I'm too far diluted to have any reasonable claim but great-grandmother (or maybe great-great, I'd have to check) was full-blood Cherokee; per the family records.