THE SPIRIT EATERS

For John Trudell

You warned us about them

--the ones who dwell behind

Masks of democracy

The No Faces

Who consume spirituality

They broke their promises

Leaving their words hollow

And soulless

Even in death we were desecrated

Dug up and put in museums

To satisfy their notion

That we were already extinct

They took everything from you

From family to security

Your truths discredited

But spirituality cannot

Be edited

It cannot be harnessed

By the celluloid Indians

It cannot be tarnished

By those who practice

Fake medicine.

It is beyond a name given

Or stolen

For the spirit eaters

Have taken everything

From the land to the air

-and no matter how much was taken

They still want what isn’t theirs

The ideology of manifest destiny

Has devoured its own Nicomachian tail

And is choking on it’s own greedy offspring

You saw the banality

You saw the finality

And as easy as it is to be consumed

By America’s excessive appetite

You remind us to protect our spirits

You remind us to continue

To reignite the fires that burn

Amongst the oceti sakowin

My comrade, I will not let

The spirit eaters devour me