LETTER FROM A NURSE

Everybody has to die

We consider ourselves lucky

Believe us

We were there & yet we intended staying,

Home a whole string of things we can’t begin to name

Oh!

The first that died sure unnerved us

Sunrise is such a horrible thing

& yet

Every day

We are called & waiting

If fortune favors us, we may find ourselves.

Squeeze the life out of our hand

There is so much to be said

We don’t believe we should

Ever get through

One year normal

Maybe we remember now.

All the schools, churches, theaters, dancing halls, etc.

Are closed here also.

There is a bill in the Senate.

We can’t help but hope.

Ha! Ha!

If we are not dead

Write

Write

To be

To do

To—

To her friend at the Haskell Indian Nations University, Kansas, October 17, 1918. Bureau of Indian Affairs.