Red River

. . . makes a noisy entry into Texas like tumbling file cabinets. Four mountains Four creeks Four forts Four suns Four seasons Four nations—Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho * At Yellow House Canyon the river turns tight. Talons skim the water, waves confirm dawn. With white sheets tied around their waists Tonkawa scouts cannibalistically count out a bag of children’s hands. Seated in a silver Concho saddle, Death’s dirty sergeant lights up his ceremonial breathing leaf. * Where Cache Creek empties into the Red River is a nerve center of war. There Velroy fought the gruesome brotherhood: Blue Corpse, Smallpox, and the Creeper, cruel 300 lb nymphs. They tried to strip his body of Carbon-14 atoms. Velroy, knowledgeable in the Flying Crane Technique of Kung-Fu, drop-kicked Blue Corpse in the windpipe simultaneously breaking his neck in three places. He tricked The Creeper with his own taboo. By passing wolf’s milk and tequila through a hole in an oak tree, it made The Creeper vomit up his own stomach. Velroy quickly buried it, turning him into a tree. Smallpox challenged Velroy to a dance-off. It took place on top of the creek. While Smallpox was doing a head spin, Velroy pulled the cardboard out from under him. Smallpox dropped into the water and drowned. * Snake Woman sits in the deep, a cinema of silver scales. Her hair moves like meadow grass in flood water. * Members of the Black Knife Society crossed the south fork of the river on horseback in a V-formation. They possess gear simultaneously musical and military: a stretched skin to serve as both shield and drum, and a club, sword, or lance that is also a drumstick. * At the Red River Ute chief cuts my guitar strings Ute women love Punk