bake my bones

feed my head

full of rays of light

cast my seeds

across the land

for its glory must not go unreplenished

did I not come here long ago

     as a child

to these headwaters

to this amazing sea of grass

                        in order to find a source of understanding

and do I not stand here now

      a woman

whole and complete

filled with the noise of the winds

washing the prairies clean

what bounty this life has brought me

what sweet and bitter truths have nourished me

fed by the dark meats of my insignificance

and healed by the momentariness of my existence

what I know

will be revealed in the whitewash of my bones

as they lay strewn across the fields

bleached by time and the sun hot skies

what I've learned

will be cast upon the wind

            to be caught up by some weary traveler

and eaten whole

for where I go now

     I take nothing

                                    but my silence.