"Thought" by Henry Real Bird

Thought

“Thought is like a cloud

You can see through shadow to see nothing

But you can see shadow

When it touches something you know,

Like that cloud’s shadow

Touching the Wolf Teeth Mountains.

When the clouds touch the mountain's top

Or where it is high

The wind is good

When you’re among the clouds

Blurred ground among fog,

You are close to He Who First Did Everything,”

Said my Grandfather Owns Painted Horse.

We are but nomads asking for nothing

But the blessings upon our Mother Earth.

We are born as someone new

So then

We have to be taught

The good from the bad.

What is good, we want you to know.

What is good, we want you to use,

In the way that you are a person.

Source of the text – Henry Real Bird, Horse Tracks.  Sandpoint, ID: Lost Horse Press, 2010.

TJB: Thought bubble. In Grandfather’s voice, shadows, clouds & thus thought are equated to godliness. The poem’s second half is itself a thought.