Cast No Shadow

I don’t walk toward death.

I walk toward my fellas' needs,

Toward the kids in their beds,

Toward the thin line that’s left.

I’m not craving an ending.

I’m 55, but I'm stubborn, so I'm stuck,

Backdooring it through "Warriors of Light"

Yeah, I am stubborn as allllll **** sometimes,

Just so I can again mother-hen my better m8's

Who insist on calling me, "Cappy Gut-Check"

When I'm nothing but a SSgt now, and I love being

One of the guys again instead of one of the bossy *****

If it’s my time,

The Picker of the Berries will know.

Not me, I'm... we're not meant to know.

Not even the berries on our same bunch.

Only The Hand That Sees what is ripe knows,

Knowing when to pick we, the saskatoons,

Into Their basket, on a trip to make their very

Own wasna in The Place Beyond the Pines,

The Southlands, like the BEST eternal summer-camp,

Where the game is plentiful, just like the berries, and

Every night, each person has a campfire, and we

Become multilocational, visiting as many other

Campfires as we want all at the same time, and

We will tell each other all our stories of our time

Here on Grandma Earth, but will also make new

Myths in The Southlands, new stories to tell around

Our campfires, and we will drum, and play acoustic

Instruments, never missing a note, no timing errors

In The Southlands, and we will sing our songs, and

No one will every need sleep, and the nights around

Our mutual campfires will last one million years if

We want them... creator lets us play 'round with time,

After such a long-time-made-short being bound by it,

They let time suit us after a lifetime of it binding us,

And this may seem like a foolish fairy tale to many,

But I don't care about that... I've lost 7 women that I've loved

More than life itself, and in loving some of them, especially

Those with the funny last names and the wrong colour skin

I've paid many costs, but **** all of 'em, I never needed either

The racists or the cold-hearts anyway; they were never friends.

My wives, three daughters gone; there is a special pain when

Your children outlive you... it is against the natural order of

Things, and if believing in The Southlands makes me a fool

And a child, so be it. I NEED it, I NEED that, I NEED to just

Believe I'll see them again, even if just for 5 minutes, to get

In the goodbye that wars do not allow for, I NEED that ****

And if I'm wrong, if when body returns to Grandma Earth,

And that's it, that's all, I'll never know anyways, if it's just

Done, so what's the harm in believing in the fairy tales that

Keep me going, that keep me from ending it all now, huh?

But until then:

Cast no shadow.

Reflect no shine.

Project no shape.

Leave no trace.

Let them all

Watch my six as,

I watch all theirs.

Not ready to go, not yet,

Not even to my daughters,

Not even to those partners

I've loved much more than my life;

I'm just at peace, and ready if called,

To leave, to fight, to stay, to walk on...

We all want the same things, really,

It's not rocket surgery, no matter who, no

Matter where in the world, and, sure, the

Greedy will always want far more, but the

Rest of us, the majority of the planet, we all

Want: home, family, friends, meaningful work,

A little leisure time to sit back and take it all in, and

Show our gratitude with the creative spark we are

All gifted, for creator made us like them, and they

Are truly defined by what they have created, so let

Us write our scribbles, babble our messages, sing our

Songs, and play them, too: paint, sketch, do anything,

Do EVERYTHING, just leave behind cool **** that tells

The world: I Was ******* Here. Yeah, it's not asking too

Much, eh? Not at all. I asked my Kuku Weayaya once,

After her pregnant daughter, my first wife, walked

On by her own hand, and I wasn't just despairing of

That, though I surely was.. seeing the love of your

Entire life, your perfect partner, take their own life,

And your five month-old fetus, but she was a baby to

Me, she swam around and kicked and punched her

Mama in the kidneys and bladder, but only for certain

Songs... I always held my classical acoustic with those

Soft sounding nylon strings right up to her mama's

Belly, and she DID have her favourites, she didn't

Just swim-dance for any old song I sang and played,

She had preferences, and if that doesn't make for a

Real child, well **** me, then I do not know what does.

And I'd cry, way back, it was 1999, a different millennia

Ago, but I despaired as I saw the writing on the wall,

Us destroying our ecological surroundings, the very

Beginning of life on coral reefs going bleached, we

Were running out of EVERYTHING that's needed

For all our modern conveniences that we will ****

And, oh yes, also die for... why would anyone ever

Take from Grandma Earth more than they could ever

Possibly use? **** capitalism, I'm talking civilization

Here, sustainability, because an economic system that

DEMANDS constant growth, like a shark in the water,

How it dies if it stops moving, that irresistible force,

Well, Grandma Earth's resources are finite, so what

Will happen when that irresistible force meets the

Immovable object of finite resources while we fully

Destroy our ecosystem to really make the equation

That much more complicated? I'll tell ya what... a

Nuclear exchange between India & Pakistan, that

Isn't an if, that is a when, because the Himalayan

Glacier shelf is gonna be gone, and that's what feeds the

Ganges, then the Nile, then the Rhein, and all the other

Major rivers, they start from glaciers high, high up in

The mountains, that when Pakistan takes all the water

Because a man who can't feed his family has nothing

Left to lose, India will have so many starving, the first

Of only many, MANY great Water Wars to come in the

Decades soon to come, because it's the same in India;

Because a man who can't feed his family has nothing

Left to lose, and on and on and on it will go, Oh Kuku,

Oh Wiȟópeča Wímahéliyáya, you who have now set,

Oh Weayaya, most beautiful of sunsets under horizon,

What will become of us, is this the end coming, is this

The Great Day of Silence soon to fall on civilization,

If not to fall even on the whole of our species, leaving

Broken Earth to walking whales and talking dolphins

After they get a few hundred million years, because we?

We were given our chance and we ****** it all up, we

Were given more than just...ah, you're my Kuku, but you're

One of the Aunties, and one of the Knowledge Keepers,

Too...can you, are you allowed to, Wea, tell me what will

Happen, when things get increasingly bad, long after

You're gone, what will I do, what will we do, how can

One person like me even help? I don't see any hope at all

For us... please tell me what you know, even if it's scary,

I'd rather know than not know, please, Kuku, tell me??

"Oh, my Chee-kshee, my Chee-kshee, all these years, and

You haven't been listening, not to me and not to our prophets

Either... it will be my ákta tȟakóža, and I know you don't

Think this will ever happen, but you will love again, Chee-kshee.

And you know it's that generation, the Seventh Generation after

Nick Black Elk and His-Horse-Is-Crazy had matching visions, the

Prophecies were spoken, it will be their task to clean up all the

Mess we've made, but they won't need to heal Grandma Earth;

Haven't you been listening, not to me, and not to our Prophets?

All we need to do is leave Grandma Earth alone, stop taking

From Her and giving not a single thing back, when the Oyate

Know that is not the way of things, that isn't how we'd treat

One of our Elders, is it? To take and take and take much more

That isn't what we do in our nation, is it, Napȟáyšni my son?

No it isn't? So, we don't have to heal Her, we just need to *leave

Her alone*, and She will heal Herself, though we will have a

Choice to make; to start living with what we need rather than

What we want... no more Musks, no more Bezos, no more!!!

Or we'll all end up dead. There is plenty for all, if we follow

The ways of the Ancestors, and never take more than we can

Use... this only makes sense. The way of trillionaires is fully

Insane, and means death to our entire species. But what can I

Do Kuku? Do what you're doing, fight when you need to, try

To spread reason, and control your temper; you have hung up

Your rifle for good, all your wars are now over, so be a warrior

In a new good way, Possessing-of-Courage-Never-To-Flee!!

Do not **** anything at all anymore unless you just have no

Other choice. Give up hunting now, too, you are of peace.

When 7th Generation, your tȟakóža, when comes their time, if you

Still live, then show your are truly worthy of your spirit name.

That you are Possessing-of-Courage-Never-To-Flee outside of war,

And ask them, "What do you need from me to help your work?"

And give them anything at all they need, and, a'ho, you will have

Done that job that you were meant to do. And, please, please,

My Chee-kshee, stop fretting so; grieve for one year, as is our

Way, and then make the decision to end your mourning, for it

Doesn't just end on it's own... you will otherwise grieve forever

For in the end, you have to make a decision, saying, okay now,

My time of grief for my daughters, my wives, is over now, and

Then we will finish the ceremonies, take their soul bundles from

From your heath, bring them home, so forever more it be said,

"Waŋblí-Pahá él thípi, Eagle Butte is where we now rest forever.

Do you understand, Napȟáyšni?" Yes, Wiȟópeča Wímahéliyáya,

Most beautiful of setting suns, and not my Kuku, now my Iná.

And so it is: