This Is Just to Say

This Is Just to Say (after WCW)

It was I who sent a spent cigarette
into the wind along that stretch of the
Indian Territories where you,
Lone Tear Trickling Down Cheeks,
earned your name.

Perhaps it skittered
and flamed out
at that same spot where
your ancestors,
marching west,
lost a beaver pelt,
a moccasin,
or a smallpoxed child.

Forgive me,
but the Marlboro's smoldering heart,
like your cracked face,
was red, red, red.

Some Bests

A pair of Bests I've been thinking of recently:

Contenders for Best Book Title:
"Let Us Now Praise Famous Men", by James Agee and that photographer
"Ladies Whose Bright Eyes", by Ford Maddox Ford

Contender for Best Two Lines to Open a Song:
"In the summer of my wedding / As the corn burned in the field..." from Hem's song, "Strays"