The Poetry of Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
The Fifth Sign - the Spiders Web
The Spider Grandmother spun the world
And all things came to be
And another sign of a spider
All will come to see.
A web shall cover the land
Its shadows shall be on our feet
It shall trail over our heads
And we shall walk beneath
From coast to coast it shall be seen
On mountains and plains to be found
And some men will think themselves clever
Try to hide it beneath the ground.
And some men from the web may be sick
And to have it removed it will be tried
But powerful are the white men who the web they weave
And all requests will be denied.
Mountain spirits will not feel at home
And their homes they may leave
And by the people they will be abandoned
Who in the White Mans God will believe.
The Fifth World is is close by
This is another of the signs
The web weaved over the world
Is the Whitemans electric and telephone lines,
To Follow an Eagle in Flight
In flight they free their captors
Who are in hot pursuit
Who seek only vengeance
And do not care for the truth
Above them appeared an eagle
Sitting in a tree
Some whose faith were strong declared
A manifestation of Tunkashila - The Great Mystery
And decreed to follow the bird
That flew strong and sure and low
And brought them to a water main
That ran underground through which water did flow
And all crept to the water main
And the bird circles the sky
And freedom was at its end
And no one wondered how or why
And each man after went his road
Let to freedom by the eagle
Who sat in a tree there
As if a king regal
Just another bird to the White Man
But to the Native who has Faith strong
That was his God, and for his Belief
He was led the path far from wrong.
His spirit is with the eagle
It can never be caged
An eagle who sits waiting on a bough
When his soul leaves his body aged.
And that eagle will bring him to heaven
A land where the buffalo roam
Wild and free for the hunting
And heaven will be like home
Tunkashila is there always with him
His spirit is not broken yet
He is as strong as Mandela
Even if they cage him till his death.