Thanking the Birds*
While Swift Eagle walks on reservation
he hears sounds of boys playing in the bushes
“There’s another one. Shoot it!” shouts one boy.
He pushes through the bush and sees
a boy holding a BB gun while his buddies
stand around a dead chickadee, robin
and several blackbirds.
“Ah,” he says, “I see you have been hunting.
Pick up your game and come with me.”
He leads them to a ground where they can
build a fire and cook the birds.
Before they eat, Swift Eagle says, “It is important
to thank the birds for the gift of their songs,
feathers and bodies as food.”
As they eat he tells stories.
After his last story, he says, “You know the Great Spirit
gave the gift of life to everything that is alive.
Life is a very sacred thing.
But our Creator knows we have to eat to live.
That is why it’s permitted to hunt
to feed ourselves.
So I understand you boys must have been
very, very hungry
to kill these little birds.”
*A found poem from Keepers of the Earth, Native American Stories & Envir- onmental Activi 1 -
ties for Children by Michael J. Caduto & Joseph Bruchac
CHRIST AND NEWTON*
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the
temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put
the Lord your God to the test.’
You guys have been fighting this losing battle
against science since Galileo
You would not look into his telescope because it was clear
the sun revolved around the earth, not vice versa
You rejected Darwin because his theory said humans were not
created in the image of God but only another species of ape
You believed the story of Adam, Eve and a speaking serpent
was history not myth
You were confident the world started thousands of years ago
not billions because the Bible told you so
Despite record heat, melting ice caps and rising seas, you didn’t
believe in global warming because Trump said it was a hoax
You acknowledged the coronavirus outbreak was a “real issue”
but suspected the media was using it to hurt the President
Over a hundred had died of the pandemic in Louisiana but you
feared not the trek to New Orleans to preach the gospel
As long as you walked in the light of the Spirit of life, surely
no germ would attach itself to your body
You missed the point of the second temptation when Satan tried
to con Jesus into showing his faith in God by defying gravity
As long as you walked in the light of the Spirit of life, surely
no germ would attach itself to your body
You missed the point of the second temptation when Satan tried
to con Jesus into showing his faith in God by defying gravity
He didn’t take the tempter’s bait and put God to the test by
taking a leap of faith from the temple’s highest point
But you did
and became another COVID19 fatality
*Based on the article, “Christian pastor who thought COVID-19 is just ‘mass hysteria’ among 2
the first in Virginia to die from virus” Written by Sky Palma / Raw Story March 27, 2020
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