Lakota winds  Taté     blast across
Wounded Knee           up and around Porcupine Butte
the Rosebud rez          messengers for tribal
prayers            remembrances of ancestors
scents of new seasons perfected pieties
in the face of immensity
wind is waken
and willing to be harnessed
by the reverent

above the blooded vastness of prairie
turbines rise    two
hundred feet    breeding
fundamental electricity
for They
see the future  have the vision
to transform the scouring force
of constant storms
They chant
the long-term  holy     generations to come
while wasichus           those who take the fat
also take the last bitter bite
of anthracite    the final sips
of petroleum   oblivious to violent
storms in the native forecast

¹Taté:  winds
^2-3Wounded Knee, Porcupine Butte, Rosebud rez (reservation): in
southwestern South Dakota
⁷waken:  holy
²⁰wasichus: white men

Karla Linn Merrifield has had 1000+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has 16 books to her credit. Following her 2018 Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select) is the full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North from Cirque Press. Her newest poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, nominated for the 2022 National Book Award, was inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars and published by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series (Rochester, NY). She is a frequent contributor to The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review.