Issue/Publication: City Beautiful Poems 1998-2006

Web Links

THE BUFFALO REVIVAL
(For Pte Oyate, the ancestral Buffalo nation)
On Animal Planet
The wild American buffalo herd
roams within the boundaries of
Montana’s Yellowstone National Park land,
running thirty-seven miles per hour, tall and wide,
goatees hanging from their chins,
long noses flat to their skulls,
closed mouths giving a serious look,
their shaggy bulk wobbling along on skinny legs
Beady black eyes notice the camera
recording the echo of their thumping hooves
as these nomads return to their winter home
This scene takes place in 2004
By the looks of this healthy herd
one would never guess
that General William Tecumseh Sherman,
U.S. commander-in-chief-of-the-Western-forces,
ordered the extermination of these gorgeous beasts,
over one-hundred years ago,
a sacrifice to end the Indians’ way of life
The Great Plains became a sea
of unused, stinking skinned buffalo carcasses
The pelts landed on laps and backs
of the Eastern carriage trade
and buffalo tongues
tickled their gourmet palates