Owl Dance

years ago I took my
Paiute girlfriend and
her kids to the pow
wow over there at
the Stronghold
where Captain Jack
pissed all over what
back then was an even
more uptight white
America with their
grace and Christian
revulsion ending in
the Modoc War and
the parading of his
severed head around
the country in a jar of
formaldehyde but at
least the badass
motherfucker had
popped a cap into the
skull of a U.S. General
and that's the kind of
shit that I can get into
so anyway me and the
old lady were pretty
hungover and she was
dealing with the kids
and I was sitting on a
stump four rows back
into the crowd staring
at the ground and they
had called an Owl Dance
and the next thing I
know I'm staring at a
pair of beaded moccasins
and I look up at this
beautiful Indian girl about
13-years-old in a buckskin
dress who just chose me to
dance with her and she's
motioning to me to let's
go and I was too fucking
sick and I told her baby
girl I can't I can't and
she was adamant but I
couldn't do it no way and
that's a major insult so
she started crying and
ran off into her mother's
arms way across the field
and that might be one
of the only times I ever
felt shitty about being a
drunk but it's funny I
still kept on drinking