Chris Offutt - "The Same River Twice"- pg. 131 (p 2-4) lyrics

These are the woods of the Poweshieck, chief of Mesquakie, the Red Earth People The remainder of his tribe lives in Tama County now, north of here Last year, Rita and I attended a powwow held in the town's rec center White families watched from bleachers As dancers competed, beneath basketball goals They wore costumes pa**ed down through generations The Mesquakie beat rhythms on a single drum, Singing songs of the past After the last Indian quilt was raffled off The white people began to leave the gym Bear and panther were eliminated in my grandfather's day, bobcat and wolf in my father's The last pa**enger pigeon died in captivity in 1914 None of us can ever see a saber-tooth In recent years, Old Faithful has lost its fidelity; the spew is erratic and short The product of land rendered impotent by men Our species is becoming Icarus with melting wax and loss of altitude The sea will drink us The air will breathe us The soil will eat our mulch