GRASSby: Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
PILE the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo,
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
There is a place on my reservation where warriors are buried. We do it in our way. Other cultures do it differently, but, this is our way.
A warrior is laid upon a scaffold, high in our mountains. Naked. No regalia, no clothing, no identification that shouts to the birds and the clouds "This is Me!"
Just a simple wooden scaffold. Just the dead, naked body of a man or woman who was a warrior when they walked and they breathed.
To me it is something fitting and just. To be a warrior is to be willing, and often, to sacrifice all, including life. A warrior who is true to the calling does not demand anything.
They give.
Since our current wars were started, whether just or unjust, right or wrong, I have gone to that place in the mountains with the body of a young man or young woman four times. Four times I have helped to raise the naked body of a warrior who has died young.
I know I will have to go again, probably sooner than later.
Thank you for this post,
all of it.................
Posted by: oddjob | November 11, 2010 at 11:45 PM
yes.
Posted by: kathy a. | November 11, 2010 at 11:51 PM
Agreed.
Posted by: Sir Charles | November 11, 2010 at 11:51 PM
Johnny I hardly knew ya
Decades ago, in my twenties, I sang another arrangement of a very similar (or same) song.
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" obviously has deeper roots than the Confederacy.
Posted by: oddjob | November 11, 2010 at 11:52 PM
Thank you, MB. For this, for what you did for the country, and for your friendship.
XXX
D.
Posted by: litbrit | November 11, 2010 at 11:53 PM
To be a warrior is to be willing, and often, to sacrifice all, including life. A warrior who is true to the calling does not demand anything.
MHB, if I understand correctly the White Mountain Apache are most correctly described as a (universally) warrior society. Do the White Mountain Apaches make any allowances for people (of their tribe) who are not born to be warriors, but rather are born for other societal purposes?
Posted by: oddjob | November 12, 2010 at 12:51 AM
of course we do. we must. one of the reasons i think we don't care about silly things like sexual preferences is that we have never been all that many. each life is precious among those few.
hunters, who carry more social status than warriors generally do not waste their time on things like war.
you have to remember though, that even when there isn't a war, things like raiding, horse thieving, or just going into someone else's land to fuck with them happened all the time.
war, a fight for our survival as a nation and people was rare, and a very critical step. consensus had to be reached before going to war, and the council of grandmothers always held the last word. no matter what our reputation was as warriors, we couldn't go to war unless our grammies said it was alright. (of course, we had some born again hard ass grammies).
in war though, when the stakes are critical, there are no non-combatant apaches.
Posted by: minstrel hussain boy | November 12, 2010 at 01:55 AM