Right Justly

When he movd into the house
he wanted us to stomp & pray
out the evil spirits
just in case they’d be there.

How cld they
when a medicine woman lived on the place
& left it to the church when she went to happier
grounds?

But a truck hauling brush
turnd on the road
& he jumped up screaming—
deer prowler
at the antlered beast.

We danced out the spirits
he carried on the place.
How now pow wow
he jumps in the sow-yard with the bow-
wow cow.

We passed the spirits to chickens
to peck their legs—
Eeeeevil spirits pock-marked
as the dartboard.

W/ marbles shooting rabbit eyes
we stompd wild fires he once built in his head,
still haunted him
as though evil spirits could open
a medicine woman’s door,
climb in her unpainted windows,
crawl through yellowed wallpaper armoured w/
prayer-chants.

We whooped & hawed until he sd nuf.
The house
barricaded from deer prowlers
from under his headband.