the end cannot be me

m.s. RedCherries

Before in the backstand of our existence, and even after—you did so much. My brother and sister tell me all the time that they miss you and sometimes it is enough to make me stop missing you. Your stories have been filled in with all I can remember—I am there, with you. And father.

And whenever you come to me, we take off down the same backroads with you in the driver’s seat, and it feels right, this tightening of life. You tighten my life.

Imagine another life in which we are together.

let us go mother

let us keep going.

finding tomorrow

It has been said that Indians want to be left alone, but never actually be alone. Growing up and being the only Indian in your school, in your town, in the eastern half of your state, at a place where you open a history textbook and see pictures of “real” Indians doing “real” Indian things, like bathing in rivers next to a teepee, and your classmates ask you, “do you do that, too?” and I ask myself—should I?—and where your high school mascot is the Indians and that makes you feel like the only real Indian in the world, like the place you were from never existed.

m.s. RedCherries

2024

this is what kafka really meant when he wished to be a red indian

Every now and again, you examine the ground before you, very jerkily, because you are not on a racing horse, but behind the wheel of a chevy malibu on a dirt road on a reservation. You are leaning with the wind because you want your hair to cover your eyes, so you could pretend you were on a racing horse. You are instantly alert because your brother, who is driving, could hit a racing horse who may be crossing the road before you. You are not wearing any spurs—you do not need any reins.

m.s. RedCherries

2024

Poems

the end cannot be me

More by this poet

finding tomorrow

this is what kafka really meant when he wished to be a red indian

Poems

Page submenu block

the end cannot be me

More by this poet

finding tomorrow

this is what kafka really meant when he wished to be a red indian

Newsletter Sign Up