Lozen, Apache Warrior-Shaman

(The only known photo of Lozen at capture with Geronimo taken in front of the prison train, archive photo.)

I reflect upon my life

Drenched in the strangeness of my surroundings

A prisoner

A pariah

Palpable heat is my reflection in the darkness

Which mirrors the sadness in my heart,

Like a crumpled tumbleweed in the hot wind where I rode

And browned my skin with freedom.

I am slapped into silence for chanting my warrior's song.

I am not really there, enchained.

Yet my mind takes me back to the far Chiricahua mountains.

I am dressed like a man

I fight like a man

My brother, Victorio, is victorious in his light.

We sing the war song together and become one with our people.

Not in the prison trains where my Apache brethren were expelled.

I will not wallow in Goyaałé's sadness

Which I saw on the train bound to his swampy destination in chains.

We ride, running stealthy-swift, by horses feet;

The stolen ones in my bravado.

I am shaman of light and vibrations

Touched by the dawn of the Supreme Deity

Powerful and engulfed in light

Like the sun's reflection in a raindrop.

Seeking answers from the four directions.

I am healer for my people,

Their love for me is my shield

And they name me a she-warrior

I am transformed into mountain song at dawn

Where I will eternally walk the trail, alone

Unmarried

Childless

Unbound

To sing and meditate and I reach upward to the skies

To grasp the webs of rays that flow through me.

The people are my children now.

I quake with the vibration of second-sight

I am shown the way.

I turn to the four directions

And give thanks.

I pay homage in green-gold chant

Like winds across the desert shrubs

The translucent mist of time remains

This arid rocky vista is my home

Where are our enemies hiding, Nana?

We will vanquish them

And will remain elusive in the shadows of the dust.

Across the skies we will ride again

The last to be chained

The last to be bound and sent away.

With this vision I will breathe my last,

To join my brother, my people, in freedom.

© 2011 Zollies-Spot