A Poem: 'Cicero Jack Ponders Relics of the Osage'

I’ve hunted arrowheads deepin Ozark woods, rummaged lengthsof dry creek beds to swell mycache of hand-chipped stone, layerthe bottom drawer of theparlor desk with a litterof flaked flint and chert. But now,as a killing drought lowerswater levels, turns the richsoils of lakes and streams, I readof scoundrels digging bones, thievesharvesting relics of thelong dead Osage, and I mustcount myself kin to both tribes.I have plundered precious things,and beyond my final breathI and mine will be plundered,soil of my progeny turnedlike the loam beneath the lake.

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C. D. Albin is a native of West Plains, Missouri, and has taught for many years at Missouri State University-West Plains, where he founded Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies. He received the 2017 Missouri Author Award in Fiction for his short-story collection “Hard Toward Home” (Press 53, 2016). More information can be found at his personal website.

This poem originally appeared in Issue 2. Click here to purchase the full issue, or subscribe at alivemag.com/subscribe. All photos by Attilio D’Agostino.