A Year with the Bison

by Erin Glanville Brown

12/09/2012

Spring

The wallows are full.
Egrets range on bison backs —
colors rise sunward.

Summer

Their wallows are dust.
Bison linger in the lake —
a well-earned day off.

Autumn

Mud dries to hard gray —
hides covered in Ghost Dance paint —
masks teeming with life.

Winter

The only arrows
now are Orion’s as he
strides across the night.


Erin Glanville Brown is a historical collections specialist at the Pawnee Bill Ranch in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Her poetry has also been published in Oklahoma Today.

Originally published in This Land Vol. 3, Issue 22. Nov. 15, 2012.