After Raven Stole the Light
1.
Eagle didn’t bother Raven any more.
The old man was too tired to fight.
Raven stole the sun
the moon
the stars.
Eagle carried prayers.
2.
On a dark winter day
when the last gasp of a storm
whistled up the night sky,
Raven unleashed
light.
Through mischief and mystery
Spring was born.
3.
Raven, fat as night,
sat atop the world tree.
He shook his wings
to settle and roost.
Light shot from his feathers
spreading stars across
the blanket of night.
4.
Bear and Coyote
stumbled down the streets of Machias.
They were drunk, singing old songs
in a tongue not even the Tribes
could understand.
The earth smelled of musk
from seeds long forgotten
on Appaloosa fields.
The telephone wires
buzzed and hummed,
launching another refrain
as light spilled from the lip
of the ocean.
Raven flew with a broad smile.
Jason Grundstrom-Whitney’s poetry has appeared in 3 Nations Anthology: Native, Canadian, & New England Writers and in the Underground Writers Association’s Anthology of Maine Poets. The band Osha Root recently produced a CD featuring his music and poetry. Jason has spent a lifetime working on Native American Rights, Sexual Assault, and Domestic Violence survival, Hospice and end of life care, homeless and environmental issues, and alternative medicine practice, A Bear Clan member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Jason studied with native teachers and many others while he hitch-hiked across America for two and a half years. Jason is a father, grandfather, and husband, and he has been in recovery for 37 years.