From a remembrance of when I was 14

Rock River Wyoming Summer 1960

Tipi Rings

(Tee Pee)

The original Americans stood here

their children played

their horses grazed

the moon and the sun made their circles

around the last of the pure innocent

I stand here one hundred years later

I see their tipi rings

I see where the snow fed rocky creek

meanders behind the trees in the distance

just as they would have seen

I see the bountiful prairie grass all around me

enough to feed their horses for many seasons

I see the high pine ridge

from where their sentry’s could see a two day ride

along all the points of the compass

to where the buffalo were

and from where their enemy came

I stand here one hundred years removed

I see their tipi rings

now silent circles of rock

slowly being covered by the shifting earth

moved by the prairie wind

in the wind I hear the sound of the laughter

of America’s original children