For Rattlesnake
A Dialogue of Creatures
Peter Blue Cloud(each speaker is introduced by a voice)
Snow plant, child of winter
see now the curving brownness emerging from snow
as earth her winter robe begins to fold,
a trickle of moisture
a gurgle then sand
rolling,
so like a pebble-filled gourd
clasped between hands
to mute to gentle murmur.
Then freshets sigh the hillsides
And stones to roundness tumble
Their praise
Cedar, oldest of trees:
Yes, my friend,
And dawn breezes lend me voice
My branches whisper
And sweet
My scent
Mingles your own breath
As we await the others
Woodpecker:
It seems then a short night and day
That berries have mantled
The mountain’s greenness,
Then bear-who-used-to-be, would…
(a long pause)
oak tree:
yes, brothers and sisters.
Bear, no more his soft and heavy walk
Bear, no more
His strange and sacred manner,
Woodpecker: (quickly)
Are we about to speak of THEM
Again?
Fox: (as a chanting)
I remember the last of bear’s tribe
Dragged
By fear-sweating horse
Foaming from whip and smell
Eyes rolling and bear
Great clots of blood
And the human a most awful smell
Of hate
And fear and lust
And the thought-pictures
Of his mind
Hurting all,
And we wondered at such cruelty
For his thought-pictures
Were of himself
Torn and devoured
By others of his likeness.
Squirrel:
Wasn’t this get together supposed to be for rattlesnake?
Hey, coyote, what of you,
Your silence is like a burr
Beneath my tail.
Coyote: (man in old long coat, floppy hat, long tail he strokes)
Yes, well,
Rattlesnake is on his way and should be here soon
And don’t forget
It’s said
That we are here to stay
As long as one of us remains,
And…
Bluejay: (interrupting)
Who said that?
Coyote: (innocently)
Why, I guess I just did.
Lizard: (stamping his foot in agitation)
You know, this is beginning to sound like
A made-up lie and the liar
Don’t know what to say next.
A voice (of rattlesnake)
I am a manner
A custom
A tribal creature.
Coyote:
He’s here!
Rattlesnake: (emerging from concealment, carrying his head)
I come to you cut in half
And cut again headless
With strong heart beating a constant pulse
I crawl to you bloody
A nightmare of man’s genius
I too am springtime
Like my brother bear
For together we emerge
From sleep
To the cancers pounding feet
And the wormwood smell.
I rattle them a music of my nearness
But they fear my dance
And ax, or knife, or gun, is the feast
I am given.
I tell again of the creation
And beg the peace of their council
And name the many clans and tribes
That none be omitted.
I teach them the necessary lesson
Of alertness
Of mind and body every ready
For the tribal will
But
They have forgotten the allness
Of the creation
In their eager quest of vanity
I lie headless and bloody at their feet
Who am
Their former brother.
(begins to chant)
I dream bear
I vision bear
I call bear
We must all become bear.
Bear: (a dark mass, slowly shuffling in dance, four times in circle, slowly, humming, as to himself, then pauses to speak)
they kill my body
they
skin me and leave my body
as in shame,
let us
then begin again the praise
forgotten by man.
Snow plant, please begin again.
Snow plant, child of winter
see now the curving brownness emerging from snow
as earth her winter robe begins to fold,
a trickle of moisture
a gurgle then sand
rolling,
so like a pebble-filled gourd
clasped between hands
to mute to gentle murmur.
Then freshets sigh the hillsides
And stones to roundness tumble
Their praise
Cedar, oldest of trees:
Yes, my friend,
And dawn breezes lend me voice
My branches whisper
A weeping as from an evil dream
Of creatures born of hate
Let us again
Then
Chant the evil back
Into earth’s womb
To be reborn
Or not
As will be.
All the voices:
Man no more
Look
He is fading
Man no more
See
He lies in dreaming,
Man no more
Forever
Let us forget the pain,
Man no more
Forever
Man no more
Forever
His bones of dust
The wind is taking
To scatter
To scatter
To scatter
To scatter.
