Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


APACHE - WIFE - ARIZONA by LILIAN WHITE SPENCER

First Line: IN SCARLET CAPS OF SUNSET, SWARTHY HILLS
Last Line: NOW . . . HAS SHE LOVE OR HATRED FOR CARLISLE?
Subject(s): NATIVE AMERICANS - WOMEN; SQUAWS;

In scarlet caps of sunset, swarthy hills
Survey the tortured valley as it lies
Naked and burning under the blue-flamed skies.
Across its sterile breast a dark stain spills
Of squalid wickiups, whose old chief wills
A third bride in his Eden. . . . Once, her eyes
Shone on the campus but their laughter dies
Where, coiled among greenswords, the rattle kills.

Fat, in a wrapper from the country store,
She squats to weave a tribal basket, while
Pent in his cave the wierd ambassador
Of ancient gods makes medicine. Her smile
Inscrutable as death, reveals no more.
Now . . . has she love or hatred for Carlisle?



Home: PoetryExplorer.net