Red heart leaf at Mahkato pow wow

this photo
(and history)
inspired a poem
from friend and poet,
John C. Rezmerski


SOMETHING TORN
for Karen McCall

The leaf is red as a heart
is red
is on ground once red
with blood.
The leaf has been torn
into the shape of a heart
upside down,
unnaturally shaped
by tears.
On the ground
where ceremonies
are drummed.
heartbeats,
handbeats,
beating, to beat,
to have been beaten
is not to have been broken,
but something was broken
to leak these tears,
these torn hearts
grown out of bloody land.