Her Heart Broke

Her heart broke like the bottles of alcohol
she flung to the wall when drunk.
Not a drop of firewater
until they took all her children away --
to assimilate, she was told.

From the red man’s land
to the frontiers of abuse and beyond.
Her husband didn’t say much except, Gute!

Her eldest child never met her.
She died when eight wasn’t even nine,
too young to leave, too old in soul.
She had seven, lost them all.