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Three Sisters
“Three sisters” –
squash, and beans, and corn –
The Ouendat
grew. In peace they dwelt,
And hunted game,
and netted fish,
And played
lacrosse, and “straw”, and “dish”.
No dread of
dreams, or death, they felt,
Nor need in
Christ to be reborn.
Enter les jésuites, clad like death,
To save these
hapless savages,
With stowaways
beneath their frocks –
Rubella, small-
and chicken-pox –
Against whose
lethal ravages
The shaman learned
to save his breath.
Of those the germs did not destroy,
The crucifix by half was kissed;
And thus it fell that piety
Divided their society
And left them helpless to resist
The blood-lust of the Iroquois.
(The Ouendat were
the so-called Huron Indians. “Straw”
and “dish” were gambling games,
played,
respectively, with straws of differing lengths and painted plum-stones)
Peter Austin has been writing poetry for a couple of years now,
and so far he has been published in 'Iambs & Trochees' (New York),
and in several British magazines ('Candelabrum, 'Quantum Leap',
'Peace & Freedom' and 'Poetic Hours'). In a previous life, he was a playwright,
achieving 4 productions and 1 published play (a musical adaptation of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS).
He started writing poetry a few years ago in a moment of desperation.
Email: Peter Austin
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