as demigods with tats that lack great art

hmm, do you know the origin of the word 'totem'
It might interest you to know that in 1790 a man
named John Long came to London with an initiatory
tattoo of the Ojibwe.. The man had lived with the Ojibwe
and had killed Americans with them in the revolutionary
skirmishes. He called his beaver tattoo
a 'totem'.. which essentially means in Ojibwe
'a member of my family' or something like that..
the word has essentially had a life of its own ever since..

i'm sure the image was rude, but it was probably the
first beaver most english had ever seen..

now how we get from an Ojibwe beaver totem tattoo word-meme
to "beaver shots" at "U-Totem" is anybody's guess..

How did we get that version of Beaver?
Do you know?

lq




----- Original Message -----
From: "Sheila Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 9:37 AM
Subject: River Wax


May margins hold your dross of choice
and limbo well accrue toward cushioning
reflexive motion passing for accomplishment.

May tacit bravery be known as the Wallendas
showing off their grammar and good taste
while we sip sap as if such slush
might offer needed quietude.

May toffy taste of supple young momentum
dreamed along moist atmosphere of wood
and mood and synthesis.

May distance pacify your tendency
to live long sans lungs glutted
with spores accumulating
as the gulls of dream go by
and timbre just resuscitates
the drive-by natterings still short on cash
as demigods with tats that lack great art

May wind be met by gravity that holds
the sun in place where practice
churns redacted feeling
soon shoved out on stage to be consumed
or poked by regulation sticks and storied stones
that once flanked riverbed
where tones of motion thinned
receptive earshot.

sheila e. murphy

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