Dream of Mësinkw Re-Balancing the McKee Treaty by D.A. Lockhart

DREAM OF MËSINKW RE-BALANCING THE MCKEE TREATY

by D.A. Lockhart

He arrives between storms,
road tops still checkered
between fresh rain, drying earth.
The sky unsteady, skull punch
hooves fall as xinkwëlëpay carries
the Living Solid Face down
desolate Riverside Drive.

Keeper of original treaty,
arrives late, sways through
burnt out streetlight shadows,
beneath a three-AM starless
night. Silent one carries him
and skyscrapers across river
backlight them violet.

They linger at the fountain
gravesite of sacred oaks,
overturned earth, absent creeks.
Find nothing of treaty, nothing
of life beneath, vacant parking
lots. Above maple leaf hangs
limp in stagnant air.

Mësinkw rides west
to treaty lands long stolen,
discovers the dark medicine
stone of a traffic roundabout
effigy. Sky Panther Kitakima
upon his horse, held fast

by a redcoat hand.

Keeper of the Game
with mighty Silent One
hew the dark medicine
from redcoat shoulders,
carries the head to river.
Throws. Kwënëmuxkok stir
along nearby waterline.

D.A. LOCKHART is the author of multiple collections of poetry and short fiction. His work has been shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, Indiana Author’s Awards, First Nations Communities READ Award, and has been a finalist for the ReLit Award. His work has garnered numerous Pushcart Prize nominations, National Magazine Award nominations, and Best of the Net nominations. He is a graduate of the Indiana University – Bloomington MFA in Creative Writing program where he held a Neal-Marshall Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing. He is pùkuwànkoamimëns of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation. Lockhart currently resides at Waawiiyaatanong where he is the publisher at Urban Farmhouse Press.

Dream of Mësinkw Re-Balancing the McKee Treaty can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 6.2.