It seems a bit strangely appropriate that, on the weekend when we celebrate a bunch of Europeans getting lost on their way to India and making the most of it by taking custody of the land, I will be grading papers. Thirty-six of them, to be exact.

Here is a poem for today by the Coeur d’Alene poet Sherman Alexie. Refer back to my post about the problem-solution nature of sonnets if you have trouble seeing how it is a sonnet.

Totem Sonnet #3

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Crazy Horse

Sitting Bull

Captain Jack

Black Kettle

Ishi

Joseph

Qualchan

Wovoka

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Anna Mae Aquash

Wilma Mankiller

Tantoo Cardinal

Winona LaDuke

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Maria Tallchief

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Alexie, Sherman. The Summer of the Black Widows. New York: Hanging Loose Press, 1996.