Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community

Laura Tohe

Laura Tohe Navajo The Big Rectangle And what if I were to accept your invitation to slow dance up the stairs and find myself facing you in the big rec tangle the slow descent into desert mouths legs curling, my vine growing next to yours hands running smooth like deer leaping to their dreams I follow you into the summer evenings and wait for the world to open her arms to step inside we are eager for the breeze we are eager for the rain we are eager for the night I’m happy you still wait for me by the river my water jar overturned it doesn’t mean I’ll mend your sox iron your shirts birth your sons tell you to take the trash out 186 I want your touch, your damp palm of sand to swirl around me want you to light the sky with a candle lover, let me hear your wind voice moan blow sand into my doorway speak our language speak the possibility of traveling on rainbows I give you my warrior self you give me your warrior self it can’t be any other way we move into the wet world thick and eager as salmon Tsoodziã, Mountain to the South You arrive in the bright of morning carrying music in your eyes and the breath of mountains in your hair We travel the path of thunder beings passing above stories where Twin Heroes slayed monsters proof lies in the dark mounds of lava trails streaming south from Tsoodziã near the meadow where spring begins and calls forth yellow horses to graze among the cattails 187 I would tell you, beloved, these stories on nights when the scent of orange blossoms lingers in the air would tell you how brave locust smoothed the earth for humans stories congealed into landscape and how places mark existence I want to travel all the colors of the worlds with you to arrive in this Glittering World held in your swollen male clouds and your hand on my thigh that causes the world to grow again and again without fine, without end your sweet music pouring forth like rain rain rain rain . . . . 188 ...