This first poem is called "In My First Hard Springtime."
And it's a poem of affirmation and also a poem
of denial at the same time.
Those red men you offended were my brothers.
Town drinkers, Buckles Pipe, Star Boy, Billy Fox
were blood to bison.
Albert Heavy Runner was never civic.
You are white and common.
Record trout in Willow Creek chose me to deify.
My horse, Centaur, part cayuse, was fast and mad and black.
Dandy in flat hat and buckskin, I rode the town
and called it mine.
A slow hot wind tumbled dust against my door.
Fed and fair, you mocked my philosophic nose, my badger
hair.
I rolled your deference in the hay
and named it love and lasting.
Starved to visions, famous cronies
top Mount Chief for names to give respect
to Blackfeet streets.
I could deny them in my first hard springtime
but choose amazed, to ride you down with hunger.