Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BUFFALO COAT, by THOMAS MCGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BUFFALO COAT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I see him moving, in his legendary fleece
Last Line: Is old and cold in a world his death began
Subject(s): Buffaloes; History; Native Americans; Historians; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


I see him moving, in his legendary fleece,
Between the superhighway and an Algonquin stone axe;
Between the wild tribes, in their lost heat,
And the dark blizzard of my Grandfather's coat;
Cold with the outdoor cold caught in the curls,
Smelling of the world before the poll tax.

And between the new macadam and the Scalp Act
They got him by the short hair; had him clipped
Who once was wild -- and all five senses wild --
Printing the wild with his hoof's inflated script
Before the times was money in the bank,
Before it was a crime to be so mild.

But history is a fact, and moves on feet
Sharper than his, toward wallows deeper than.
And the myth that covered all his moving parts,
Grandfather's time had turned into a coat;
And what kept warm then, in the true world's cold
Is old and cold in a world his death began.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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