George de Forest Brush, American
How Legendary Native American Warrior Falls-From-Canoe-Just-As-About-To-Stab-Moose Got His Name, 1888
Oil on canvas
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived if necessary), here, here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, here, here, here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page.
/// Ketchi hunts from his birch bark canoe.
Two braves paddle to swiftly subdue
a moose swimming so near
it’s in reach of his spear.
Then a hoof kicks the boat and breaks through.
/// Through the hole which the swimming moose smote,
water flooded in, sinking their boat.
The three dropped spear and oar
and then swam for the shore.
The moose turned to the men. Did it gloat?
/// If you stab a moose, better be sure
that you kill it, for otherwise you’re
the first target he’ll seek.
You’ll be up “caca” creek,
and it’s unlikely you will endure.
/// And yet, even if through skill and luck
you should slay it, you still will be stuck.
That dead moose will just sink
quickly under the drink;
a half ton corpse that’s mired in the muck.
/// We have all heard the phrase “wild goose chase,”
but The Moose Chase might well take its place
for “a hopeless pursuit.”
Had he speared the huge brute,
how the heck would they take it someplace?
/// They retrieved the canoe for repair.
(Birch trees grow in the woods everywhere.)
They did bring home some game,
but a hare’s not the same
as a moose— there is not much to share.
/// The three hunters agreed, on reflection,
that their loincloths provide scant protection.
But, about what they’re wearing,
girls said “Thank you for sharing,”
after making a thorough inspection.
/// The brief loincloth’s a garment to shun
if you seek warmth or shade from the sun.
Put one on to seduce—
not when hunting a moose;
canoes aren’t the place for such fun.
/// They’d been hunting for big fish that day
when a swimming moose got in the way.
It all happened by chance,
that it swam ’neath his lance.
Though he poked it, the moose was OK.