Last Friday Night

"It's just too deep in the Rez
For a white-man style killing," he says:
 
"A bullet each to the back of the head,
At Pueblo Pentada two brothers are dead;
Two Navajo brothers are dead.
 
"It isn't a skin-walker killing;
No feud, not a woman too willing.
A knife, a club, a thirty-ought-six
Is common enough and at least doesn't mix
White man logic with Navajo tricks:
 
"No bullet each to the back of the head!
But at Pueblo Pentada two brothers are dead!
Two Navajo brothers are dead"
 
From Bread Springs to Shiprock you'll hear people say
"No place is safe now!  You can't get away!"
Nageezi to Yah Ta Hay
You'll hear the Din'e people say
"The killer's from Pie Town or Santa Fe.
Some white, somehow, somewhere must pay
For a bullet each to the back of the head!
 
At Pueblo Pentada two brothers are dead!
Two Navajo brothers are dead."

From Poems of the New Old West
Copyright 2002, Jack Purcell