I Cast It Away, My Body:
after Georgia O’Keeffe’s First Drawing of Blue Lines, 1916
Because two brothers make a body where none existed
God drew two bodies as one went crooked
There is a war between us. And I am losing
My brother, fabulous night panther & copper-horned
Struck by lightning, electric blue: two lines
My father pulls two ribs and one snaps into angles
In the waiting room, a body begins to fold in on itself
A body begins to pull a breathing tube from out of itself
There is a war between us. And I am losing
My brother, all copper feathers and dragon tail, chosen
In the mud of a battlefield, you’ll find my heart
Buried in the soft red clay, my body
Broke and anchored to this earth, a bolt
Jettisoned, my brother is my father’s first son
Copyright © 2016 b: william bearheart. This poem originally appeared in Boston Review. Reprinted with the permission of Carrie Bearheart.
“The title is taken from an Ojibwe war poem.”
—b: william bearheart
b: william bearhart
b: william bearhart is a direct descendent of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. A graduate of the Lo-Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, bearhart’s work appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through (W. W. Norton, 2020).