Thick cloud — steam rising — hissing stone on sweat lodge fire
Around me — buffalo robe — sage in bundle — run on skin
Outside — cold air — stand, wait for rising sun
Red paint — eagle feathers — coyote calling — it has begun
Something moving in — I taste it in my mouth and in my heart
It feels like dying — slow — letting go of life
Medicine man lead me up though town — Indian ground — so far down
Cut up land — each house — a pool — kids wearing water wings
— drink in cool
Follow dry river bed — watch Scout and Guides make pow-wow signs
Past Geronimo’s disco — Sit ‘n’ Bull steakhouse — white men dream
A rattle in the old man’s sack — look at mountain top — keep
climbing up
Way above us the desert snow — white wind blow
I hold the line — the line of strength that pulls me through the
fear
San Jacinto — I hold the line
San Jacinto — the poison bite and darkness take my sight — I hold
the line
And the tears roll down my swollen cheek — think I’m losing it —
getting weaker
I hold the line — I hold the line
San Jacinto — tellow eagle flies down from the sun — from the sun
We will walk — on the land
We will breathe — of the air
We will drink — from the stream
We will live — hold the line