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BUFFALO WINGS by Max Dinkman

Buffalo once
floated like great white clouds
across the vast blue sky.
But to be
completely literal,
the buffalo were brown,
the sky was gray,
and the tall grass was a greenish-yellow.
 
          “Stay out of the tall grass!”

They lost their hot and spicy wings
when the trains came over the plains
bringing with them a new sort of pain for the buffalo
. . . and their wings.

“You didn’t know they had wings?”

Eight wings per buffalo
—on their ankles—
like the Sub-Mariner.

          “He’s a comic book character!”

But violent white men combined
with bombastic, blasting boom-sticks combined
with trusting brown buffalo
destroyed
all the winged ones.

They could no longer fly
so subsequently died.
Blood flowed from the eight holes
on their four ankles,
flattening the tall green grass
under thick red puddles, leaving
the plains with only wingless buffalo
and saddened savages.
 
And the trains drove past,
on into the movie sunset and Manifest Destiny.
All the passengers were full and content,
exhausted from a hard day of aiming and flicking their fingers.

          “I didn’t think you would believe me.”

Bio: Max Dinkman is a teacher and writer. He has had many poems and short stories published.