MOVIE’S BRUTAL TRUTH
Warning: This article contains plot spoilers of Killers of the Flower Moon being screened in South African cinemas
The sheriff disguised her death as whiskey poisoning.
Because, when he carved her body up,
he saw the bullet hole in her skull.
Because, when she was murdered,
the leg clutchers bloomed.
But then froze under the weight of frost.
During Xtha-cka Zhi-ga Tze-the,
the Killer of the Flowers Moon.
The excerpt is from the poem Wi’-gi-e, or Prayer, which Osage author Elise Paschen wrote in 2009 to honour Anna Kyle Brown, who was thought to be the first victim of the Osage Reign of Terror.
Brown’s body was found at the bottom of a ravine near Fairfax, Oklahoma, in 1921, with the
