Mongrel Dreams Poem by Michael Burch

Mongrel Dreams
by Michael R. Burch

for Thomas Raine Crowe

...These nights bring dreams of Cherokee shamans
whose names are bright verbs and impacted dark nouns,
whose memories are indictments of my pallid flesh...
and I hear, as from a great distance,
the cries tortured from their guileless lips, proclaiming
the nature of my mutation.

NOTE: My "mutation" is that my family appears to contain English, Scottish, German and Cherokee blood, meaning that my ancestors were probably at war with each other. Did my English ancestors force my Cherokee ancestors to walk the Trail of Tears? Keywords/Tags: Cherokee, Native American, Blood, Shame, Shaman, Shamans, Flesh, Genes, DNA, Genesis, Mute, Mutation, Night, Dream, Dreams, Vision, Visions, Vision Quest