Quiet Mountain Essays

Copyright © 2010; All Rights Reserved by Author

South Dakota Rednecks
by
Suzanne Sunshower

In this Western    
cavemen kill bambi.

Lean out pickup truck windows
and shoot.    Yep    that’s the [whites] way
to do it:
rapid-fire.    Kill all

the strong healthy coyotes too.  

Not on foot or pony but in detroit’s finest    
chevys/fords with gunner nests fixed atop –    

(i’m sure you can picture what i mean)

it’s their way: kill anything (everything)
anywhere anytime    because
just because
(that must be the way)

they like it.

In this made-unholy land    indians
get work in moving pictures.    You know    
moving

pictures –    whites waxing nostalgic
remembering
first sully of the land    reliving it
all    all the taking killing taking killing

taking    mostly taking    (a storyline     
without end) it seems  sometimes rewriting
or twisting pieces for additional effect

[never could keep straight their own lies.]

For all i know  maybe the rednecks watch
these movies and say: look
remember that ? Indian War    whata shame
no pickup trucks with gunner nests

back then.

Contributor's Notes...

I stumbled upon my nearest neighbor's shop of horrors and found the frozen carcasses of several animal
species hanging from the rafters: coyote [pronounced ky-yote], badger, fox, 'coon, 'possum, etc...and, I
remembered his reassurances to me that, "Oh, coyotes are pretty fast, I don't get that many."  I looked at
the gunner nest atop his truck, and I wondered about that.  Coyotes are not edible; and raccoon pelts fetch
about $20, at the most.  Most of the animals hanging in his shed were neither edible nor worth much
money, dead.  In South Dakota, as of 2010, youngsters can shoot guns alone at the age of 11; it is lawful
to fire upon animals from a vehicle or from the air; and any animal can be shot upon one's own land.  I'm
sure I don't have to remind you what the history here has been with the native human population.

This poem is from my new collection called Stop Film.

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