Sustenance: A Poem For Leonard Peltier

Sustenance: A Poem For Leonard Peltier


All you wanted was to feed
The People, and a hunger entered
your Spirit. All you wanted
was to end the pain, and the pain
of your Sundance entered your heart.

"Where are our warriors?" a Grandmother
asked and the small boy in you rose up,
a sweet smoke offering. You gave
your life, but all you wanted was life
on Earth for all your starving relations.

You spoke for the young as a young man
and your Spirit-Song answered. You stoked
the fire for The Elders, until now, an Elder,
you fan the flames of Freedom in our lifetime,
keeping the fire of all our dishonored treaties.

You studied Liberty while they waged war
upon us, and upon those who looked like us,
the flower of your Spirit opening to let us all
inside your cell. You wanted the many colors of
the Rainbow, your warrior-Spirit becoming you.

You gave us your life, your words,
your Rainbow on the whitened page.
You fed us all. They locked up your Light
but not your fire. It blazes like sage, smolders
in the concha, the smoky prayer of your resistance.

All you wanted was to feed, to end the hunger—
of the flesh, of the the Spirit, of conscience.
Now, with starvation all around, a mold that
just won't wash, you feed us, The People, with
your fasting, your writing, your glowing example.

Here, in this sacred circle of Earth, fed by
the Sundance that is you, may you walk
and love among us once again, telling
the Truth of the Old Ones, of the ones not yet
born. We are fighting for your freedom still.

Well fed by you, we know,
we tell, and we demand:
FREE LEONARD NOW!
FREE LEONARD NOW!
FREE LEONARD NOW!


Lorna Dee Cervantes
Sept. 12, 2010
for Leonard Peltier's 66 birthday
and for peace with dignity and justice