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The Mutton Hunger
- University of Arizona Press
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the Mutton Hunger Malcolm Benally A visceral woven memory is herding sheep, juniper ground shadows, permanent rock— sheep grazing on the land among flat cactus valleys, flat tortilla bread in your lunch sack, on the simple table mesas, spiritual wealth on the Black Mesa. The sheep are holy, a creation story in air and motion being born. yeah, though i walk through the valley, too. The turquoise rock, freedom masked, blue Kachina faces, the chief paint red streak running into Water stones, white flourmixing dough in a winter of no deer in the juniper and sap bowl, among travel wanderings, partaking of corn pollen and wisdom history. The flock tastes of the red earth, the shepherd, the true seer walks. Drinking the water, sleeping on the earth’s bed. sheep is the life root, a natural kinship the realm. May Allah have mercy on my soul. sheep wool, the spoken handspun earth story, the yarns of wool. The dream weaver’s root thoughts, his or her lanolin hands, and my mom, weavings of rebirth the indigenous blue, red, white, yellow, and black: like the Chief Blanket. A longtime master of war, a woman will tell you the sheep is a mom who cures for all of us the sick and hungry, the homesick. Teestso, Water Within The Cottonwood Trees, Katsina, and hopituh, the people of peace. ...