Thomas Locicero’s most recent poem to appear here was “If I Were Dead” (May 2019).

Black Hills
By Thomas Locicero

Had I known each stake hammered in the soil
Was a trespass on the soul of this place,
Where the victors stole the spirit with the spoil
And sought to satiate by to erase,
I would have rested elsewhere as you rest
Beneath, above this earth, which is still moved
To feel your breath against its mother breast
From where, unsatisfied, you were removed.
I would I were a trav’ler of the wind
Through thwarting history, omnipotence
My sword hand, and, with one command, amend
Without altering good, each circumstance
And drink in all this majesty at will
With seedlings, once un-sprung, your spirits still.