A new poem and a repost Starve The Ravens combined, when previously-written poems are brought back, they enchance the newly-composed poem for a fusion of literary balance, they are comprehended more abstruse and have a more profound meaning...

I.

she stands out
in a cornfield, poses
as a scarecrow, fat raven
perched on a bleached skull,

if skulls could talk, this
skull would say "Seven Fires
Prophesy, the seventh fire will
light the eighth,"

two roads for the
light-skinned people,
they made the wrong choice
of roads, the destruction they
brought, their greed and road to
technology, the road that has led to
a damaged Earth,

the second road
leads to spiritualism,
a slower path, Mother
Earth is not burned up
on this trail, water drums
provide the sound of the
Four Corners, where Colorado,
Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico
converge, Shawpita, the chosen one
climbing to the top of the ladder from
the ground up that has been reached,
deserving at every level of the ladder rung,
showing the direction to the people, it is the
Fifth Fire, false promise, those...those who
abandon the ancient ways, where the canteen
of life becomes the cup of grief, the skull of an
Indian where the light-skinned race launched an
attack taking away their land and independence,
as history repeats itself,

she stands out in
a cornfield, poses
as a scarecrow, fat
raven perched on a
bleached skull, where are
the people of the seventh fire?

II.



Starve the Ravens


Her mysterious tears
stain the old yellow
sea-navigator's
map

drawn on a
sheet of vellum
contained within
a circle,

produced by
monks in
medieval period,

black ink with
red and gold
leaf,

blue and green
for rivers and
seas.

Lady Sea by
day, navigating
by the seabirds;

If the beak of
a seabird is full,
it is heading toward
its rookery, if empty,
it is heading out to
sea to fill its beak.

Muse by night,
navigating by
the Big Dipper.

The Pirate ship
was using lead
and line that day, 

one day's journey
out, the pirates
thought, but
miscalculated,
lost in the trade
wind.

The pirates jumped
ship and swam
like bastard
robbers to
the Muse

to steal the
Mappa Mundi.

At the top of the
map is Christ in
Majesty sitting at
the Day of Judgement

To His Right and Left,
angels summon the
blessed and turn away
the unrepentant.

At His Feet is the
Blessed Virgin who
intercedes for those
who have shown
devotion to her.

The Muse jumped
ship and boarded
the abandoned
Pirate ship to free
Starve the Ravens.

The pirates kept
ravens aboard
and starved them,

then released them
for navigation.
The ravens flew
straight to land
for food and the
pirates followed
their lead.

Lost in the trade
wind, the Muse
was swallowed
up, leaving no
trace but her
mysterious tears
on the
Mappa Mundi.

Her last climb
was up the mast
to tear down
the Pirate's flag,

the skull and
crossbones
and hourglass,
death symbols
to the pirates.

Her ghost ship
is seen on the
horizon in the
backdrop of
a lighthouse
and fat ravens.

Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist