Whippoorwill

Laying within our tee pees, feeling full of dread,
My sister and I remember the words the Chieftain said;
A great battle would begin the following morrow,
But we fear that by sundown the Sioux would bring the Omaha people much sorrow.

My mother has cried all this day, attempting to hide her tears in her chores,
But as I worked with her in the fields, there was something I learned I abhorred;
The "honor" my older brother and my father hold so dear,
Has brought upon the women of the village a mortal fear.

Tonight, that agony has been amplified,
Because in a vision I saw many wounded, and many died;
My brother and father, would fall without a single enemy kill,
This vision brought to me, this evening, courtesy of the repetitious call of the whippoorwill.

(footnote: The Omaha people have a superstitious belief that the whippoorwill's repeating call is a harbinger of death.)