The Raven made from Ash and Blood.
The ashes of our reservations and hesitations.
The blood of our rez and the blood of our ancestors.

Some children chant, “The Blood Raven!
Come save us from the rotting of our world!”
Once he would come and save these poor children
from Sorrow and Time with Verse and Rhyme
with Iambic Pentameter and with Pantoums and Haikus.

The great Edgar Allan Poe wrote with such grace, “
Quoth the raven nevermore.”
If only there was pain nevermore,
insane nevermore, death nevermore, blood nevermore.

The Blood Raven is our protector.
Though his eyes are pure red and his body as black as obsidian,
the children no longer quote him.
Even in their darkest times they do not chant to him because
the Vulture of Ignorance
has plucked the children’s eyes out
so that they can no longer read
the Chant of the
Blood Raven.

The Raven made from Ash and Blood.
The ashes of our reservations and hesitations.
The blood of our rez and the blood of our ancestors.