WEBVTT

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A number of years ago, in
fact, when I left Iowa City,

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my then wife and I drove
in a little Volkswagen,

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camping out on the
way, hating each other

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on a five-day trip
to Portland, Oregon,

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where I was going to teach.

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This next poem is
concerned with that.

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A few things you have
to know about it.

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One is, "Rosebud" is
the title of the poem.

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That's in reference to the
Rosebud Indian Reservation,

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in South Dakota.

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The Greasy Grass
mentioned in the poem

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was the Indian name
for the Little Bighorn.

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And the Sioux holy man
who's mentioned in the poem

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is Black Elk. Who
some of you probably

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know of from the book
Black Elk Speaks.

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"Rosebud"

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There's a place in Montana
where the grass stands up

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two feet, yellow
grass, white grass,

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the wind on it like locust
wings, and the same shine.

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Facing what I think was south,
I could see a broad valley

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and river, miles
into the valley, that

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looked black, and then trees.

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To the west was
more prairie, darker

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than where we stood because
the clouds covered it.

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A long shadow, like the edge
of rain racing toward us.

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We had been driving
all day and the day

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before, through South Dakota,
along the Rosebud, where

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the Sioux are now
farmers and go to school

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and look like everyone.

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In the reservation town, there
was a Sioux museum and trading

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post, some implements inside,
a long bow of shined wood

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that lay in its glass
case, reflecting light.

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The walls were covered
with framed photographs.

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The Oglala posed in fine
dress in front of a few huts,

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some horses nearby.

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A feeling, even in those
photographs the size of a book,

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of spaciousness.

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I wanted to ask about
a Sioux holy man

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whose life I had recently
read and whose vision had gone

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on hopelessly past its time.

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I believed then that
only a great loss

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could make us feel small
enough to begin again.

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The woman behind the
counter talked endlessly on.

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There was no difference
I could see between us,

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so I never asked.

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The place in Montana
was the Greasy Grass,

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where Custer and the 7th Cavalry
fell, a last important victory

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for the tribes.

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We had been driving
all day, hypnotized.

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And when we get out to enter the
small, flat, American tourist

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center, we began to argue.

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And later, walking between the
dry grass and reading plaques,

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my wife made an ironic comment.

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I believe it hurt the
land, not intentionally.

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It was only meant
to hold us apart.

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Later, I read of Benteen and
Ross and those who escaped.

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But what I felt then was final.

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Lying down, face against
the warm side of a horse,

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and feeling the lulls endlessly,
the silences just before death.

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The place might stand
for death, every loss

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rejoined in a wide place.

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Or it is rest, as it was
after the long drive,

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nothing for miles but grass,
a valley to the south,

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and living in history.

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Or it was just a way of
living, gone, like our own,

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every moment.

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Because what I have to do
daily and what is done to

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me are a number of
small indignities.

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I have to trust that many
things we all say to each other

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are not intentional, that every
indirect word will accumulate

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over the earth.

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And now, when we may be
approaching something final,

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it seems important
not to hurt the land.

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