Today's poem is by Sage Ravenwood

Leonard Peltier's Plea For Clemency
        (Ini'chaghe-kte, Ini'chaghe-kte)

All my life I heard his name.
They won't write poems about a man like that.
Glamorize the heft of years where you can't
            walk a straight mile and sunlight's filtered
            between polycarbonate windows.
You don't need prison bars if you take the native
from stolen land. His spirit still kicks up dirt.
The outside world soundproof safe.
Aging out of life experiences where
            the soil between fingers feels like home.
Out here the rocks speak of journeys,
in there the drumbeat is a concrete shuffle.
When the sun knife blades through gloom,
            stand čhiŋkší in errant rays of sunlight.
All our relations are with you,
hold hands with the past in a 6 x 12 cell. Sing.
Michǐnkshi nañpe ma'yuzae,
Michǐnkshi nañpe ma'yuzae,
A'te he'ye lo, A'te he'ye lo.
Ini'chaghe-kte, Ini'chaghe-kte,
My son, let me grasp your hand,
My son , let me grasp your hand,
Says the father, Says the father.
You shall live, You shall live,
Dance until you fall exhausted to your knees.
            Dead warriors whispering
            in ears, pounding heart drums.
American Indian boarding schools still whipping
            native hides from within.
We can't find our language in your laws.
Outlawing beliefs that don't align with yours,
shoving religion
        down throats still choking on genocide.
Tell me again about fair and just.
Push us some more, bury our dead, our women,
            without their songs along highways.
We had no choice but to protect our own.
The FBI came to the Pine Ridge Reservation
            with guns.
Resistance came with guns too.
They will never learn,
            we are like wild horses,
            not meant to be broken or tamed.
Intimidate witnesses, tally the inconsistencies,
break the backs of families in the name of...
You're afraid. We know something of fear.

Leonard, as the nights draw long and difficult,
I hope you hear our ancestors singing — still.

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Copyright © 2024 Sage Ravenwood All rights reserved
from Shō Poetry Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission