Moments Hard to Piece Together
American Indians should stop weeping over
the cruelty
of the trail of tears and the long march.
The day will arrive when the elders will cover
and bury their hearts in the red earth.
Their grandchildren will run out of despair
and the nightmare of the conquered by kneeling
to offer sweet pollen at the graves of warrior dreamers,
take up the staff of resistance that the old stories
promised was the one and only way to survive.
More Poetry
Autumn 2019
World Literature Today’s autumn issue celebrates U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo with poems and an interview inside, and the cover feature devoted to Literary Activism commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Alcatraz occupation that began in November 1969, guest-edited by Allison Hedge Coke. As always, a generous selection of book reviews and other features round out the issue.
