Tiger

a prehistoric encounter

Comes the tiger, comes the fear.
Cannot show it; brandish spear.
Icy fingers rise below
Strum my heartstrings; keep breath slow.

I’m his dinner, run or lose
Does not matter how I choose.
Frenzied woman, boy, two girls
Hunker down as clash unfurls.

Must look fearless lest they run.
He would chase them, she’d be done;
Hurl herself into his maw.
Kids reach safety down the draw.

“When I rush him you all run”
Softly, calmly, “and my son,
If I die you must be brave.
You’ve a family to save.”

I’ll engage him, they’ll run clear.
“Run!” I yell and hoist my spear
Scream and charge him, unlike prey.
Tiger turns and runs away.

General “Mad” Anthony Wayne

(Eponym of Fort Wayne, IN; Wayne County in IN, MI, OH, MO; Waynesville in MO; et al.)

It’s not true.
We were never taught
to hate him.
OK sure,
we knew about him
and we certainly
didn’t admire him.
But it is, as they say:
“Nothing personal, just business”.

We kids heard
all the old stories
from Aunt Bess
in Oklahoma.
How he thrust Northward
but failed
then fell back
to build Recovery.

Our people
gave him a fit;
for years we stymied him
out-fought him,
out-talked him.
Our Miami Tribe and Nation
gave him
a great deal of trouble
and set back.

But we never called him “mad”.
We didn’t think of him
as crazy.
Well, not anymore so
than the rest of you
white eyes.
It was you
who gave him that name
“Mad”.
You see a difference
we cannot.

He had the same lunacy
you all have.
Land is your booze–
you thirst for it.
So we stuffed your mouths
full of dirt
after we killed you.

Dean Z. Douthat is a retired engineer residing in a senior living facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His 3rd great grandfather was Little Turtle, Chief of the Miami Tribe, who headed a confederation of tribes that offered great resistance to the US taking over their territories, including much of Indiana and Ohio and the southern part of Lower Michigan. Little Turtle was finally defeated in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and signed the Treaty of Fort Greenville in 1795.