Before the government made them landholders
Sioux people roamed the plains and Black Hills.
Now some of the men have abandoned the unwanted land.
I meet them in the narrow Minneapolis streets.
Young men wearing old names, scars older than their bodies.
They talk to strangers, talk to themselves,
when talking to each other sometimes they fight
until someone pulls a knife – then everybody runs.
Because these days
counting coup is just a story from the past.