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Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 23.2 (2002) 92-94



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Carnival Pictures; Traveling Song for Joyce

Kimberly Musia Roppolo


Carnival Pictures

I wonder,
in this country
am I the only one
holding carnival pictures
as evidence of identity,
in this feast of flesh
we call America,
where Grandfathers
ate Grandmothers' peoples
up for dinner
with a satisfying belch
in the name of expansion?
Worn images
of women
who gave birth
and gave birth
and gave birth
when so many
of the children
died—
  in their arms
  in fields
  on streets
  with bottles in their hands.
Heavy trails
on their faces
my grandmothers' mothers
both bound in their frames
above my TV [End Page 92]
exhaustion under her laughter
exhaustion under her straight gaze
with men with no names
alone.
Did you dream me
my luxury
of complaining about nothing,
complaining when
my children are well
their bellies full?
Of a man who
stayed around
long enough
to find fault with?
Of sometimes passing
for white
when that privilege is so much,
so much more than it ought to be,
yet Icomplain,
and get by with staring
with rocking the boat?
What unearthly case
would this be for you
this life
the life
you
gave
me,
conceived
in your wombs and in your spirits
with
sweat and imagination? [End Page 93]

 

Traveling Song For Joyce

You know the only thing
that keeps the two of us
from being Thelma and Louise
is all these kids,
a couple of men,
and a little too much Indian blood.
I wonder which of those, if any, we'd be willing to ditch.
We ought to get a great big motor home,
load up those kids
and be vagabonds,
sell things for a living,
read books in our spare time
and talk while we're driving.
Or, we can save that dream for those moments
like those
where your grandma said she'd hop on her motorcycle someday,
strap her guitar on her back,
and ride off in the sunset, not worried about supper anymore,
figuring they were all big enough now to handle it on their own.


 

Kimberly Musia Roppolo of Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek descent, is an English instructor at McLennan Community College. She lives in Hewitt, Texas, with her husband and three children. She recently completed her Ph.D., specializing in Native American Literature. She has published reviews in News from Indian Country, Talking Stick Arts Newsletter, and Studies in American Indian Literatures. She has upcoming creative publications in Children of the Dragonfly, edited by Robert Benson, Hypatia, and Studies in American Indian Literatures. She is completing her first book-length creative work, Breeds and Outlaws: Poetry, Prose, Family History.

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