Lori Piestewa

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Click Here to listen. (3.5 min/RealMedia)

Brown skin.  Black hair.  Dark eyes.

You were proud to be an American soldier
and died fighting a white man's dubious war
with people
with brown skin, black hair, and dark eyes.

Two children.
Too young.
Of three cultures: Hopi, Hispanic, North American.
A woman, dying in combat.
A woman, so full of spirit.

It gets complicated.

But your pride was as real and as vivid
     as a corn seedling
     breaking through the earth.

You were fighting, and you died, for us.
All of us.

The war you died in
may diminish under the scrutiny of time
but you
yourself
are beautiful and clear.

Goodbye Lori.

Goodbye.