Bestiary for the End Times

Wampanoag song (Naumkeag, in the dawn lands…)
From the astonishing words of Martin Prechtel
 
i.                 
The people would gather
and ask which families
had the poorest harvest.
 
These families would be asked
to sing to make the next year happen
and they would be feasted
 
and hundreds and thousands
of purple shell beads were scattered
and these were the purple corns
 
in their mineral form offered as food
for the migrating geese,
for the migrating geese
 
would bring in the year and
make the world jump up and live.
 
ii.                
These are the wild geese
eating the wild berries!
 
These are the wild geese
eating all the fruits of the forest
 
These are the wild geese
May they eat! May they eat! May they eat!