BILLY’S SONG
With heart, love and conviction, we found you alone and small
With ten tiny toes and ten tiny fingers
Abandoned in cold storage by desperation, by poverty,
By time devoured in love smothered small.
Billy’s song sings the blues crossing seas of emptiness
Tears falling like waves on solemn shores,
Gulls’ crys echoing still, empty - crib space.
We are here today to alter your singular song,
We are here to transform justice from injustice.
We are here to bury Baby Billy with dignity
Shorn away be statistics whispering cold gray/blue
Egregious imposture from floors of Augean Stables;
Whispering toxic half truths for the violent reptilian monolith.
We want your spirit to hear our cry...NO..NO..NO!
“No!”, we roar above the callous, whisper,
Our antiphon to your mournful dirge
Forms a circle of sentient love to pass you among us,
Baby Billy, to pass you and sing your brief life hymn,
Infant Billy, to pass you from one caring hand to the other,
Tiny Billy, to pass you before breath was firmly formed,
Innocent Billy, to voice my country tis of thee.
We found you cold, alone and small and now we place you in our circle,
We gently place you in our hearts,
In our minds we warm you, tenderly in soft crocheted comforter,
Rose and Angel cuddling your innocent chest,
in our hearts we place you; we place you in heart of Mother Earth,
With your eternal toy - Redtail circling - crying blessing,
Crying rest in your blessed place;
Crying rest in your innocent garden resting place.
~James Matakey Asay
Indian Health Council, Pauma Valley
April 2000
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