Disappeared.

Curtis, Mandan Hunter with Buffalo Skull, 1908

Wolves of Heaven

It had been very hot for three weeks
so I worked well into a cool night
when at 3 a.m. a big thunderstorm hit.
I went out in the yard naked and sat
at the picnic table for a rain bath
careful about the rattlesnake on the sidewalk.
The sky drowned the mosquitoes
feeding on me.  The lighning was relentless
and lit up the valley so I could see
the ghosts who had me ill this past year.
Then I was part of a battle from two
hundred years ago when the Cheyenne
from the east attacked the Absoroka,
the Crow, in this valley.  A group of the Cheyenne
were massaum, the wolves of heaven,
warriors who painted themeslves solid yellow.
One on a black horse stopped at our gate
but decided not to kill me.
I want to be a yellow wolf of heaven.
They disappeared into the lightning. 

Jim Harrison