» Poetry
Brother My Brother
Poetry by Shann Ray and Art by James Black
Brother My Brother draws from the brotherhood shared by Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho ledger artist James Black and Czech American poet Shann Ray opening a doorway into the powerful love among brothers worldwide. Cherishing intimacy while refusing to look away from humanity’s capacity for violence, this book engages the genocidal weight of history alongside the thermonuclear missile crisis proliferating globally in the present day. The visual art of James Black and the poems of Shann Ray offer a sense of fearlessness accompanied by peace and well-being against the imminent threat of annihilation. To hold the beloved’s face, to speak love not hate, to see blackbirds rise from a winter field and hear the quiet breathing of horses–to give witness to the beauty of wilderness and the beauty of the human heart. Brother My Brother takes as its project the reconciliation of people and nations.
Sister Who Saved Her Brother — Battle of Rosebud Creek
colored pencil and ink on ledger paper from 1895, 11 x 17”
… ^
only first notice
with me the Aggregat
series (German for “aggregate”)
a set of ballistic missile designs developed from
1933-1945 by a research
Program of Nazi Germany’s
Armed Forces (the Wehr-
macht) and remember even
now its greatest success was
the A4 more commonly
known as the V-2 fuel
ethanol and liquid oxygen
the 80s brought nuclear fear
but today its quite different
notice how there’s not near
as much jumping under desks
or wailing of loud sirens
or visiting bomb shelters
now everything’s different
… ^
notice too
the Kaliningrad K-5
(NATO reporting name AA-1 Alkali)
also known as RS-1U or product ShM
an early Soviet
air-to-air missile
with a speed of 800
meters per second
and beam riding
guidance that in later
years was replaced by
a beam-riding seeker
with infrared semi-active
radar homing for
missiles now given
the name heat seekers
… ^
notice too
the AIM-9 Sidewinder
(where “AIM” stands for
“Air Intercept Missile”)
a short-range air-to-air missile
which entered service with the United States
Navy in 1956 and was subsequently adopted
by the US Air Force in 1964
and since then the Sidewinder
has proved to be an enduring
international success so its latest
variants remain standard
equipment in most Western-aligned
air forces but don’t forget the Soviet
K-13 (AA-2 ‘Atoll’) a reverse-
Engineered copy of the AIM-9B
which was also widely adopted
by a number of nations such that
these newer seekers with rocket
motors can also equip attack helicopters
for greater kill force please recognize
these as among the oldest lowest cost
missiles also don’t forget the US Navy
hosted a 50th-anniversary celebration
for the Sidewinder in 2002 and Boeing
won a contract in 2010 to support
Sidewinder operations through 2055
… ^
today missiles
with names from A to Z
carry thermonuclear warheads
flying the earth wherever we ask
them to fly leaving and reentering the atmosphere
with pinpoint accuracy exoatmospheric kill vehicles
yes EKVs ride fast
so please remember
the ancient prophecy:
when you see standing
in the holy place
the abomination that
causes desolation flee
to the mountains let no
one on the rooftop go
down to take anything
from the house let no
one go back to the field
to get their cloak it will
be dreadful for pregnant
women and nursing
mothers pray that your
flight will not take place
in winter or on the day
of rest there will be great
distress unequaled from
the beginning of the world
and never to be equaled
again please note it says
if those days are not cut
short no one will survive
and wherever there is a
carcass there the vultures
will gather but be not afraid
for as lightning that comes
from the east is visible in
the west so will be the
coming of the prince of peace
Sister Who Saved Her Brother — Battle of Rosebud Creek, Detail #2
colored pencil and ink on ledger paper from 1895, 5.5 x 5.5”
… ^
we
declare
the Arrow or Hetz
(Hebrew: חֵץ, pronounced [ˈχet͡s])
a family of anti-ballistic missiles
designed to fulfill an Israeli requirement
for a missile defense
system that would be
more effective against
ballistic missiles than
the Patriot surface-to-air
missile jointly funded
and produced by Israel
and the United States
development of the system
began in 1986 and it has
continued since drawing
contested criticism yet still
undertaken by Israel Aerospace
Industries (IAI) and Boeing
it is overseen by the Israeli
Ministry of Defense’s Homa
(Hebrew: חומה, pronounced
[χoma] “rampart”) administration
and the U.S. Missile Defense
Agency it forms the long-range
layer of Israel’s multi-tiered missile
defense system along with David’s
Sling (at medium-to-long range)
both Iron Dome and Iron Beam
(at short ranges) and note it is warhead
directed high explosive fragmentation
flight ceiling exoatmospheric
… ^
please note
the al-Husayn
(Arabic: الحسین, romanized:
al-Husayn) “little beautiful one”
a short-range ballistic missile developed
in Ba’athist Iraq an
upgraded version of
the Scud missile the
al-Husayn was widely
used by the Iraqi Army
during the Iran–Iraq
War and the Persian
Gulf War weight nearly
15,000 pounds warhead
1,102 pounds of payload
high explosive chemical
biological and nuclear
capabilities but also note
fuselage and warhead prone
to break into fragments while
reentering the atmosphere
… ^
see
the Aspide
(the Italian name for
the asp) an Italian missile
produced by Selenia (then by Alenia
Aeronautica now a part
of Leonardo S.p.A.) it
is very similar to
the American Sparrow
an echo design is the
UK’s Skyflash the Asp
uses the same airframe
as the Sparrow but an
inverse monopulse
seeker far more accurate
and much less susceptible
to electronic countermeasures
(ECMs) than the original
conical scanning the Asp
also has original electronics
and warhead a new more
powerful engine with closed-
loop hydraulics for better
downrange maneuverability
and different control surfaces
replacing the original triangular
wings with a newly designed
common cropped delta fixed
wing maximum speed Mach 4
(4x the speed of sound) explosive
force open torque from a four tube
Asp/Sparrow launcher boxlike indifferent
… ^
note
the Type 01 LMAT
(01式軽対戦車誘導弾,
01-shiki kei-tai-sensha yūdō-dan)
a Japanese man-portable fire-and-forget
Anti-Tank Missile
(ATM) development
began in 1993 at
Kawasaki Heavy
Industries and was
accepted into service
in 2001 during
development the
missile was designated
with the codename
XATM-5 later it was
known briefly as the
ATM-5 not modeled
after the deadliest anti-
tank missile known as
the Javelin the ATM-5
unit cost $250,000 the
weapon employs a
sophisticated Command
Launch Unit (CLU) that
is re-loaded for multiple
firings reliant on kinetic
energy through shaped
charge explosives using
the Munroe effect to
penetrate heavy armor
the charge collapses a
metal liner inside the
warhead into a high-
velocity shaped charge jet
capable of penetrating
armor steel to a depth of
seven or more times the
diameter of the charge
and can be delivered
without the high velocity
required by armor-piercing
devices and thus less recoil
Sister Who Saved Her Brother — Battle of Rosebud Creek, Detail #1
colored pencil and ink on ledger paper from 1895, 5.5 x 5.5”
James Black
Both Cheyenne and Arapaho, artist James Black is a Southern Cheyenne Sundance priest and ledger artist. A descendent of Black Kettle, the renowned Cheyenne peace chief, and two of the original Fort Marion ledger artists of the 1800s, Cohoe and Making Medicine, through his art James honors his people today.
Shann Ray
American Book Award winner Shann Ray teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University, and poetry for Stanford and the Center for Contemplative Leadership at Princeton Theological Seminary. Czech American, he grew up near Lame Deer, Montana, on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.