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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>16 lines<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Lost Father<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My father was 20 years old,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>When he went to fight in a police action.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>A grenade fragment destroyed who he had been<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>So I never knew the man my mother married.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I carry his Apache blood<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>But favor my white grandmother in looks.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My spirit is more like my great grandmother,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>A gentle resilient strong Ojibwa woman.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My mother was only seventeen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>An army corporal’s young wife at my birth.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>She was a child bride married at age fifteen. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>She returned to her people before I was two.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thus it was I missed knowing him <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Before he returned a violent stranger.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Gone was the man who brought mom yellow roses<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>And carried his infant daughter home with great joy. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>DeAnna Quietwater Noriega<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>Cell: 573-544-3511<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>Email: <a href="mailto:dqnoriega@gmail.com"><span style='color:#0563C1'>dqnoriega@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>Author of <i>Fifty Years of Walking with Friends<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='mso-ligatures:none'>https://www.dldbooks.com/dqnoriega/</span></i><span style='mso-ligatures:none'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>