How to bring the bison home
Featured image: Bison © Robin Silver
By Susie O’Keeffe
Listen to Susie reading “How to bring the bison home.”
How to Bring the Bison Home
Take a million tears
in each salty jewel slip
the dust of a red man
his starved children, his raped wife
string the glimmering spheres
along frozen prairie grasses
Pray for 120 years
Gather the 300 bison ancestors
Build a pen Cut the grass Offer the grass
Give the survivors
a cold Montana corner (for now)
Carve white men
into their sacred mountains
(no rock climbers permitted)
Give one hill for worship
(rock climbers come anytime)
Offer their great, great grandchildren
crystal meth suicide diabetes
Wait
Sing the bones
(60 million bison)
dance the slaughter
(700,000 wolves)
chant the loss
(12 million people)
Drum, drum, drum
on the cold gym floor
the fire water fight
Open the gates
—
Susie O’Keeffe lives at the headwaters of the Sheepscot River in Maine where she is helping degraded land regenerate, and creating a forage forest. She occasionally teaches classes on rewilding and reciprocity at the College of the Atlantic, and works on an independent project entitled, “The Art of Reciprocity”. Susie holds a Master’s of Science with distinction in Environmental Management from Oxford University, England. Fluent in French, her professional experience ranges from comprehensive environmental policy to program creation and direction in the fields of local, organic agriculture and wildlife conservation. Previously Susie worked with a variety of environmental organizations including the Resource Renewal Institute, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, and Maine Farmland Trust. Her writing has appeared in Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, Phylogeny, the Spoon River Poetry Review, and The Maine Review. In addition to writing poetry and teaching, Susie is an amateur photographer and gardener. Susie is a member of our Rewilding Leadership Counsel, and is on the board of the Northeast Wilderness Trust.
