You’re strong as an ox he groaned
Southern backstreet bad
Guttersnipe boned
I was wrestling my dad
I had double vision
He was triple tired
I was nimble in quicksand
Cornered he was mired
Coins tossed for his reasons to fight
My runaway jaunt
Made Ma’s hair ghost white
She was grieving and gaunt
Greyhound busted
Back from out west
Mama had missed me like
I’d been in the cuckoo’s nest
Dad would’ve thrown me out
But he was torn
Between the woman he adored and
The daughter he scorned
And I was just like him
A renegade spin
Proverbial haystack
Needled in gin
Space between my teeth
Button nose slim
My dad and I were thick as thieves
Way back then
He was an orphan
I was not
His past life of misery
He never forgot
Until I awoke like a sage
Uncanny outrage
For the government settlers
Who made our people rot
Our underground ancestors
Grew into trees
I roamed through their roots
On my hands and my knees
I knew I was born outta
Dust weeds and grit
A twisted old oak
Said don’t feel so different
In a whisper, the tree spoke
To my spinning redhead
Your father & mother
Will someday be dead
Like your grandma your grandpa
Like all theirs and bleaker
We hear you loud and clear
We know you’re a seeker
A tribe is a circle
Unbroken. Untamed.
And you’re strong as an ox
As your dad once proclaimed
dianegreen©