The Elders at the Falls

        (The Dalles Dam at Celilo Falls on the Columbia, 1957)

 

 

I heard this story.
They stood all day with their backs turned.
They stood there just above the river
all the long day with their backs turned
to what was happening.
Like the chorus in ancient tragedies,
not the heroes but the old people
who do not see the battle,
the sacrifice, the murder,
they stood and listened to the messenger,
the voice that tells the story.
The voice they listened to
that had spoken all their lives
and all the lives before them
telling its story, their story, that great voice
Celilo
grew smaller,
became less,
became quieter,
all day, until
at twilight
it was silent.

 

They turned around then.
They turned and looked at the flat lake of silence.