Hey Tommy!

Jim Larwill

Canadian Shield Chapbooks III
Text Box: Hey Tommy! The Ballad of Sergeant Tommy Prince by Jim Larwill Sgt. Thomas “Tommy” George Prince born: Brokenhead Reserve - 1915 died: Winnipeg - 1977 Text Box: Hey Tommy! The Ballad of Sergeant Tommy Prince Hey Tommy! Are you dancing now, moving around campfire buffalo skin draped over your wolf warrior back; clouds, prairie fire smoke; foot steps, thunder flash moving in circles across a morning sky? It took me twenty years to figure out that knowing smile of yours, that half cocked fully loaded joke, one that reflected all the way back to a hot Italian afternoon. Philosophy Philosophy you talked to me of Philosophy Text Box: Did you see it in my eyes Tommy? Did you see how that morning I wheeled my car off the industrial street through that mandatory overtime picket line, right through cries for a 40 hr week? Did you see the way those strikers jumped as my “scab” foot hit the gas, and how I made it past the front gate into a factory under siege, right up to the guard hut where I handed a job application to yet another fat security guard? Philosophy Philosophy that afternoon you talked to me of Philosophy of how things did not al ways appear as they appeared. I had only been in Winnipeg a few days, was new to the blue bowl prairie sky and as I crossed into the July 1st city limits the Dominion Day radio spoke of a famous Canadian soldier, an over seas hero Text Box: of the 2nd World War and the Korean war; Military Medal pinned onto his chest by King George VI, US Silver Star pinned next to it by the American President. The radio spoke of how this hero of ours was the most decorated native Canadian soldier, and how he had now lost his medals in a rooming house fire. Hey Tommy! Are you dancing now, moving around campfire buffalo skin draped over your wolf warrior back; clouds, prairie fire smoke; foot steps, thunder flash moving in circles across a morning sky? For a century the State tried to take your people's language away, until tongues were nearly cut out; yet, these very same States then found that these voices were needed once they had turned them into scarce commodities. They recruited Text Box: as we sat on that shopping mall bench; your impatient “brother” standing ridged at attention to one side, not understanding why you would weave your hands and aim a bare toothed predator gaze deep into the sun drunk eyes of a “white boy,” when you had been beaten and knifed by a gang of "punks" not long before. Philosophy Philosophy you talked to me of Philosophy of how things do not al ways appear as they appear, and to not judge by skin on the surface. And you smiled that knowing smile, that half cocked fully loaded mine field joke, one that reflected all the way back to a sunny Italian afternoon where an olive skinned peasant hoed up and down the rows trying to save his crops, ones torn apart by tracks of tanks and shells of endless artillery fire. Text Box: Did you see it in my eyes Tommy? Is that why you stopped in the parking lot? Is that why you came and sat with me on that Winnipeg shopping mall bench? In front of us overweight security guard goose stepping back and forth protecting what you had risked your life for many times. We sat under his contextual gaze as we passed words down a hidden line of communication. "Is he bothering you? If he's bothering you, you let me know. If he asks you for money don't give it to him." But he didn't understand did he Tommy? He didn't see we were talk’n Philosophy, didn’t see the words we were passing down a hidden line, and he didn't understand everything appears not as it appears. Your brother was a drunken Indian and not a Korean war hero, and you had no university education, you were no student of Philosophy. Text Box: speakers of Native American tongues, into the ranks of communications cores, using a failed genocide as a secret weapon against European Fascists, because your marginalised Native languages were codes so complex they would take thousands of generations to create – even if only a few generations to destroy. And once those words were needed by those who tried to take them away, by those who had tried to help you with residential schools, schools staffed by celibate teachers in black, one more time they wanted Native help to survive, and you freely gave. Philosophy Philosophy you talked to me of Philosophy of how things did not al ways appear as they appeared, and to not judge a man by equivocal robes he wore.