I Will Get My Subterranean Back

Painting by Michael Keck

I WILL GET MY SUBTERRANEAN BACK
(lyrics)

I will get my subterranean back, my alligator flap jacks.
I will get my cat back. Ruffle back. Flat back.
No more set back. Nothing cheap.
We reap what we speak.
This is a morning in paradise. This is a night in hell.
I’m in tears after wheeling in stars.
There’s terror on my tongue, a breakout in my gut.
If this is what it takes to snap the trap
Then I’m in. And I’ll begin the story again.
I will get my stomp dance back, my cougar black
I will get in my last lap. Don’t hang back
Forget set back. Nothing’s cheap
We reap what we speak.
I need all the help I can get, said the spirit on the street
He was my father rambling without sleep.
He was a house burned black and a war for the crown
He was the belly of the beast, he was the heart thrown down,
Who was missing at the feast?
I will get my eyes back, my eagle singing tracks back.
I will get my stop gap, what I lack I can take back
So I can give back. No more set back.

We reap what we speak.
We reap what we repeat--
We reap what we dream, what we scheme and what we take.
I take my subterranean back.
On track.

c Joy Harjo May 26, 2006
(draft....from her blogsite)