Feb 9, 2019 - I met you at Standing Rock by Mark K Tilsen

I met you at Standing Rock

The phrase said so often it loses meaning but
Let’s imagine it’s true
under the night of the fire works
when the cynics asked “what are you celebrating?”
A boy and a girl met
A young woman and a young man to be more precise
He wore his freshest baseball cap at a jaunty angle
Don’t know how he kept that basketball jersey so crisp after weeks in camp
And she was a vision
All defined jaw and high cheek bones Carmel skin
Skin tight flashy shirt and white jeans
Hair so long she could sit on it
He holds out two cell phones playing the same music video
She twirls around and around
Her hair spraying out like a silky galaxy
hitting his face all slow motion car wash
he blinks
The lights of the phones flashing over her as she smiles in the twirling dance hands held low at her side
It is an Indian summer that will last forever
The fireworks ring them in iridescent halos of explosions
She will smell of wood smoke, camp food, choke cherry lotion and conditioner from the prairie knights casino
Not forever, but maybe just this moment, he is in love
With this girl, this time and place

When I tell my sister Lee in the morning what I saw
She asks me if this happened or was it a dream?
-This was before the water cannons and rubber bullets snipers and mercenaries helicopter flyovers humvees and mraps before the broken bones batons and mace-
I look up at the godless sky
Both I tell her

Mark Tilsen Oglala Lakota

Mark Tilsen is an Oglala Lakota poet and educator