Turning its power lose on
the four winds, the sage
grouse beats her instrumental
wings, drumming up energies,
while Stone Creek Woman
channels the grouse's dynamic
drumming into a medicine wheel
circle dance.

She slowly dances the circle in
a clockwise direction to absorb
the grouse's dynamic energy,
marking sacred space, allowing
no others in these territories,
enabling women movement with
no outside influences.

The sacred space of the grouse's
habitat, and diet of sagebrush,
and also that of the pronghorn is
another endangered species, along
with many other prairie grasses.

When sagebrush is gone from the
land, just like battered women,
stripped of roots and respect, it is
difficult to regrow.

Our prairies are vanishing at a
catastrophic rate.  The tragedy of
losing native prairie plant species
and grasses unfold from the days
of old; wagon trains, and the boom
and bust of the cattle and cowboy
era beat down, and wore out the soil.

"Grass is tough and old.  It fed herds
of buffalo, and prehistoric creatures
before that.  Women soften the outline
of the hard world, and so does grass.
We should make an honest commitment
to preserve womankind and native
grassland," Stone Creek Woman says
as she dances the medicine wheel.

Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist, brainchild of Sage Sweetwater Creative Properties, flagship of Stone Creek Woman