Vultures on Route One-Six-Three,
lifting roadkill just at dusk,
the feast will last for hours.
Three prairie dogs in a row,
eating shrubs beside the road,
they’ve stopped to smell the flowers.
We kill, they eat, man and bird,
a cow, a fox, two deer, a sheep,
man and bird in harmony.
Two live horses on a ridge
above the road as I drive past:
Don’t come down to cross this road,
or those big crows will eat you fast!
Man and bird, they kill, they eat,
a fox, two deer, a cow, a sheep,
two live horses on a ridge,
prairie dogs as witnesses:
this ceremony at close of day
--suppose we call it “Roadkill Way.”
Ron Singer wrote a series of poems while staying in the Navajo Nation. Here are some more poems about the Navajo Nation.
The reservation is the largest area governed by a Native American tribe. It lies across the US states of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
Get hold of Ron Singer's poetry on Amazon