Where are the Shawnee now?
Do you know? Or would you have to
Write to Washington, and even then,
Whatever they said,
Would you believe it? Sometimes
I would like to paint my body red and go out into
The glitter snow
To die.
His name meant Shooting Star.
From Mad River country north to the border
He gathered the tribes
And armed them one more time. He vowed
To keep Ohio and it took him
over twenty years to fail.
After the bloody and final fighting, at Thames,
It was over, except
His body could not be found.
It was never found,
And you can do whatever you want with that, say
His people came in the black leaves of the night
And hauled him to a secret grave, or that
He turned into a little boy again, and leaped
Into a birch canoe and went
Rowing home down the rivers. Anyway,
This much I’m sure of: if we ever meet him, we’ll know it,
He will still be
So angry.
----Mary Oliver