Honoring Ancestors
Honoring Ancestors
by Carlene Carter Brandon
* * * * *
Copyright 2013 Carlene Carter Brandon
* * *
* * *
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
* * * * *
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 ) * *