There is a woman, she is from up North, she
speaks in the lilting way of those from Rocky
Boy, Fort Peck, Standing Rock. I am not sure what
she is maybe Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Cree
maybe...she told me once but I have forgotten...
when she talks her voice is like crushed velvet,
soft and inviting and her laughter falls like
heavy rain soaking your every pore...it sounds as
it comes from the soul...
I have known her for sometime...when she was a
youngster...then a teenager and then a bright
young woman...I know her mother and sometimes I
wonder about her father...
She talks about him how he took care of her,
protected her and spoke to her about the way she
should live... he passed away a couple of years
ago...alone. Her mother having left him years
ago...her mother once said she married him
because she wanted a powerful man in her
life...but he beat her and she got tired of it
and left him after many years...
This young lady has long black hair and eyes that
shine even at nite and they smile when she speaks
to you. I see her every now and then...
I went with her on a trip where we talked about
the things of work and day to day living...
She dances, women's traditional at pow wows
dressed in white buckskin and she moves like a
branch in the wind...softly and with a step that
has been learned from hours of practice....she
has two boys and they are her life...they make
her complete...
She works hard everyday and cares for her
children and is married to gruff young man and
sometimes I wondered how they got together but it
is not my place to ask why...but she is....she
loves him..
He goes about and checks on her every day...where
is she...what is she doing...who did she go
with....he says.....sometimes he drops by and
visits her...bringing gifts and presents...and
sometimes stays for hours....
I saw her the other day like I have in days
past...in town getting out of the truck...she
moved ever so slowly...her body aching it looked
like...and sometimes she comes in and her bright
eyes covered by dark glasses hiding the light
from her blue eyes...
Sometimes there is a limp in her walk...and she
moves gingerly...taking the day slow and smiles
and talks...she has the gift of talking about
anything and everything...oh, I fell she
says....and there under her arm are the dark
lines of fingers....some never will go away they
stay for months...they tell their own story...
She is here today...and yet she has been gone for
many days...twisted her shoulder...falling from a
horse...but she will dance traditional for July
4th...
He brought her new buckskin leggings...she showed
them to all...
She is a natural beauty...tall and fair...with
long black hair and dark brown eyes and a soul
that shines on her children...they are everything
to her.... She has a smile that is radiant..but
it seems her eye brows are sometimes
swollen....retaining water she says...and yet I
can hear her father...just as she would say... he
was a tall large man...from Northern Montana...he
always treated her well...and took care of her...
if he were here he would take care of me she
would say and nothing more...and she talks about
him so....
She loves this man she married and the other day I
asked her why...she looked at me closely...I
looked into her eyes and in there spoke to the
person inside.....you are young and have a long
life ahead of you...maybe you should get rid of
him...and she was quiet...and then said...
I am going to dance at the pow wow this week
end...and I will wear these new buckskin
leggings...and look at the beadwork...it is so
nice...and looking at her I could see that under
her dark glasses she had blue eyes...so her life
goes on...time after time...day after day...and
though the world waits at the edge of the dance
arena she will dance in the way she has lived and
it will go on....and on...
Somewhere in her soul...she lives free...and it
is a place...where she goes to her little world
but her children can't get there....they see it
all...she is there just a little ways
away...smiling and laughing with her blue
eyes...and there is nothing else to say ...
She has blue eyes... rustywire
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