Casey Hallas Art

Pend Oreille

Highway 95.
4 by 4 is on.
The biggest lake, mama, in Idaho.

Don’t want to say it wrong.
Your waters quietly sun-bleach
the sunken trees and submarines.

Yet I dare not say your name –
Pend Oreille, Pend Oreille

Of you I said I’m fond –
Before I moved out West.
A bird of death now drawn
Forever on your breast.

I look into your eyes –
The bottom of my steps;
I cannot catch my breath,
I cannot say it back.

Yet I dare not say her name –
Pend Oreille, Pend Oreille

I said goodbye to Sam
Gone back to Oklohell.
Montana on my mind –
Shooting ne’er-do-wells.

Pend Oreille
I ask your name.
In waves of gravity
My body falls away,
My body falls away.

Yet I dare not say your name
Pend Oreille, Pend Oreille