president jackson called it indian removal.
indian removal: a clean operation,
a long cut out
to preserve the body
many broke down
between georgia & what is now
oklahoma,
arms & legs withered
sasparilla roots
on the Trail of Tears
no one mentions
miles of bones splitting
like divining rods
over a landscape that opened
of burnt blood.
waterless gravity
yanked children into dust,
a ghost river from nowhere
to nowhere
This piece originally appeared in Relinquishing the Word, a student journal published in 1990.