Ah-Weh-Eyu - Pretty Flower
Ah-Weh-Eyu
my pretty flower
Daughter
of the once great
Seneca nation
How I wonder,
did you ever know
Just how beautiful
you were
Back in the day ..
Ah-Weh-Eyu
my pretty flower
Forget those
trade beads, furs
and feathers
And the lies of all
the white men
Who once
queued outside
your tepee,
with false promises
of peace
and full bellies
For your children
Ah-Weh-Eyu
my pretty flower
Forget
black powder
lightening sticks
and broken mirrors
I want to
take you with me
On a journey
of self-discovery
Through dark
forests and across
those deep rivers
To a place of safety
and then to
teach you, just how
beautiful
You now really are
without the baggage
or that war paint
propaganda we have
all since
grown to despise
Ah-Weh-Eyu,
my pretty flower
I want to always
see you clearly in the
flash and shine
of crazy glazed bowls
and copper kettles
Far removed from all
the sepia, lithographs
and old photo’s stored
in biscuit tins
and these cigar boxes
Beneath the beds
of my own ancestors
Themselves,
now long since passed ..