Red Lake Indian Brothers

By Don Iannone

This is April, and
they had been missing since late November.
Everyone had given up hope,
except their mother, who wasn't ready
to stop loving them, just yet.

Two Indian boys--brothers, who
like all other two and four-year olds,
had an insatiable sense of curiosity.
This time it carried them to First Thunders Lake--
wearing a tantalizing satin sheet
that glittered in the early morning sun.
This time it carried them
even beyond their mother's love.

True enough...
the boys' ancestors explored the deep places--
the ones beyond the forest and to the lake.
The lake dressed in white satin
that sparkled like a million stars
on a pitch black winter night.

Maybe the boys heard the same call
that rang in their ancestors' ears for so long.
Maybe the two brothers saw a beaver
making its way to the inviting beaver dam.
Or maybe they followed a white-tailed deer
to the magical water's edge, and decided to go beyond.

The two Red Lake brothers, in the dead of winter,
came face to face with the Great Spirit
at the bottom of the remote lake,
where the wild rice would grow again in the springtime
and the brown trout would invite men and boys
to stand side by side casting
their lots in life into the clear blue water.

I want to believe that
the boys' ancestors met them--just before,
and walked them into the light.
I want to believe the tears will quietly end in Red Lake,

where just two years before
ten people died and seven others were injured
in a shooting rampage at Red Lake High School.

I want to believe no more tears will fill the lake
where the wild rice will grow again in the springtime,
and the brown trout will invite men and boys
to stand side by side casting
their lots in life into the clear blue water.