Honoring Ancestors



  Honoring Ancestors

  by Carlene Carter Brandon

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  Copyright 2013 Carlene Carter Brandon

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  Table of Contents ( ToC )

  Honoring Ancestors

  Mending Fences

  Darkness of The Abyss

  Haunting Shadows

  Wasting Time

  Pushing Up Daisy's

  Phoenix

  Sparrow

  Chasing Dreams

  Iron Woman Joey

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  HONORING ANCESTORS

  We need to rise up like an earthquake and shake them up.

  Strike like a bolt of lightening, with quickness and wake them up.

  Band together with a voice as loud as thunder

  Demand recognition as a Nation Knows as the Eighth wonder.

  A wonder we survived genocide and character assassination

  Still dancing honoring ancestor's in Ceremonial Celebrations.

  Like the ebb and flow of life running through a stream

  The answers flow within our veins to our necessary means.

  As sure as the sun rises at dawn, comes morning.

  Red Bird will rise like Tsunami tides, heed my fervent warning!

  Carved in burial stone, Turkey Claws his birth mark.

  Turkey Clan united, a human chain you can never break apart.

  Generation's from Treaty signers “We're Idle No More”

  Our Native tongue, our stronghold won't be bridled no more!

  You ask “Which part are you a Native Son?”

  My heart that makes me whole like a beating of a drum.

  Descendants of Moytoy, Kindred Blood, a sovereign band.

  Blood that can't be washed away, by rising tides like grains of sand.

  Behind our beliefs, we stand tall and firm.

  Refused to be bait, or hooked and squirm like a worm.

  Tribal Nation of people beautiful, bold, and proud

  Bonded together by the Creator, so strong our blood is our grout.

  Our spirits will rise, with many voices as one.

  We won't cave in till recognition as a Nation we've won!

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  MENDING FENCES

  A solemn moment in my life

  When time stood still

  As I sadly watched the children play

  Under the tree by the old saw mill

  In that solemn moment

  My journey through life transcended

  As I realized how crucial

  Broken fences need mended.

  Life can be to unpredictable and short,

  To leave behind bad memories

  It only takes a fleeting moment to say

  “Am sorry” and “Please forgive me.”

  So while you're still here

  Set a special time aside

  To … mend your broken fences

  And leave good memories behind.

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  DARKNESS OF THE ABYSS

  Tired of treading troubled waters

  Against waves of emotions, crashing within.

  Riding with the blustering jet stream

  Teetering like a feather in the wind.

  Drug under am drowning in sorrow

  of perilous relentless doom.

  Withdrawing from life to hibernate in ...

  Tragically what became my tomb.

  So when you think of me,

  In the ocean breeze, blow a kiss.

  Am beneath the waves

  At the bottom of the Abyss

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  Haunting Shadows

  Dark shadows; haunting me

  A ghost from out of my past,

  Breathing over my shoulder

  Sending chills up ;my back.

  Where can I Hide

  To plan “The Great Escape”

  From the lingering Evil

  I seem unable to shake.

  How many times

  Must my heart skip a beat.

  When late at night, in the shadows they creep.

  When I go to bed,

  In fear I hesitate

  Cause I know in the dark.

  Under the bed they await.

  They enter my dreams

  And chase me all night.

  Sometimes I stay awake

  And bring in daylight.

  Like a restless ghost

  That won't go away

  My dark haunting shadows

  Are forever here to stay.

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  WASTING TIME

  Why do I waste my precious time

  Waiting for you to change,

  When easily you could be replaced,

  Like a photo in a frame.

  The color of your baby blues,

  Have turned to hues of gray,

  It reminds me of your changing moods,

  At the end of every day.

  And though you serve me coffee

  On a sterling silver tray

  Not having common ground

  Left us to little to say

  So when you say “I Love You”,

  In your condescending tone.

  Remember my restless darling,

  Sometimes … I would rather be alone.

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  Pushing Up Daisy's

  Look over the dale, and what do I see

  A faceless henchman coming for me.

  His stature was stout, and he answered to Zack

  While taking is orders from a sheriff in black.

  With noose around my neck, Zack tightened the rope

  No final reprieve on which I had hoped.

  Pleading innocence, but ... to no avail

  Still the angry crowd roared “Thief burn in Hell”

  I held my chin high towards the sky

  My last request, I passed it by.

  Over my head, Zack placed a sack. And ...

  From that moment on, there was no turning back.

  As tears rolled down my Irish cheeks

  My heart grew heavy and my knees grew weak.

  I prayed in silence “Lord take my Soul

  Deliver from the depths of Sheol”

  Zack snatched the block from beneath my feet

  The crowd then silent, not a spectator wept.

  There in the rain, the crowd dispersed

  While they carried me away on the back of a horse,

  Off to the graveyard, down the dirt road

  The gravedigger lowered me in the deep hole

  There in the pine box is where I lay

  Pushing up daisy's, under the shade.

  The thief was caught by the town that cursed me.

  Some on their knees at my grave, beg forgiveness and mercy.

  Upon my tombstone these words engraved

  A virtuous woman, a town wrongly hanged.

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  PHOENIX

  I will rise like a phoenix

  From the deepest darkest depth

  Transcending through time

  Breaking silence, with the quickness of a stealth

  You will never see me coming

  You will never see me go

  Completely undetected, soaring

  At the speed of light, from hither to fro.

  Like vapors dissipating

  Far beyond this atmosphere

  Without a trace left behind

  gone, Like I was never here

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  SPARROW

  There's no greater sorrow

  The lonesome sparrow knows

  Than a
woven barren basket

  From the loss of her own

  Her songs echo of sorrow

  Colliding against the wind

  Resonating her wounded spirit

  Of certain sadness from deep within.

  The renewal of life within her

  Brings forth hope, the promise of spring

  She'll take to the skies again

  And again she'll spread her wings

  The songs of the sparrow

  In harmony with the wind

  Echoing a melody of joy

  From her spirit deep within.

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  Chasing Dreams

  Little Girl with long dark hair

  Eyes of Gray and skin so fair

  In the meadow chasing dreams

  Stepping stones to cross the stream

  While Painted Ponies run wild on hills

  Little Girl so fair, picks daffodils

  With eyes of gray, in the pond she faces

  A beautiful canvas, of enchanted places

  Where candied apples grow on trees

  And, fountains of chocolate flows like streams

  Cotton Candy clouds lying low above ground

  While chasing her dreams, a dream land she found

  Her canvas fades as the Sun set's slow

  Homeward bound, Little Girl must go.

  Stepping on stones, to cross the stream,

  Little Girl so happy, she caught her dreams.

  * * ( ToC ) * *

  IRON WOMAN JOEY

  Out of the Sacred Mountains, Iron Woman

  Joey was born.

  From the thirsty land her ancestors dwelled,

  Where the Nizhoni Dine grow corn.

  With the dawn she rises, before little

  Bradleigh from her slumber wakes up.

  Prepares herself for the day while sipping

  coffee from a cup.

  With quaking steps she awakens the earth,

  While on her morning run.

  After waking the earth, she affectionately

  twist Sleighs hair into a tsiyeel bun.

  She waters and feeds the horses, slinging

  bales of hay.

  Out the door to work she goes, molding a

  Nation like hands with clay.

  In celebration of life, the Sells women in the

  kitchen they gather.

  Making tamales with nurturing hands, A

  Flock bonded so tight, born of the same feather.

  Like generations before them, sprung

  corn from a thirsty dry land,

  Springs forth a new generation of

  Iron Women Colorful and Proud,

  birds of a feather, together they stand.

  * * ( ToC ) * *