earth
forgotten
along a
Shiprock
roadside

what folks don't know
by t. zoey benally

over and over throughout this life
the people i love at one time or another
have tried to punish me for being me.

days and days will go by and they will
deny me the things i love the best
met with silence, arms remain closed.

and when they begin, they often
get stuck in a holding pattern, forget
their original goal, lose themselves in BIA-ness.

i am left watching them ensconsed in
self-righteousness, cloaked in judgement,
earth circles spent on nothing.

but what they don't realize is that
i am not afraid, not afraid of me
and no amount of torture
will make me betray me.

oneword: sage
by t. zoEy benally

i must run slow like a cow
thick hooves clomp river rocks
slow legs support a huge slab o' beef
slide slowly through sagebrush and tumbleweeds
slow red cow runner attracts horse flies
with their bayonette proboscis
sticky starved tongue
to lap up blood pooled
on the back of my lumbering cow leg.

oneword: pane
by t. zoEy benally

thomas stared through the window pane
absorbed the ringing thump of rain bullets
pelted on the galvanized roof
acid rain dissolved traces of zinc
and it ran down gutters
collecting bits of lead from paint
and soaked into the ground
showered tomato plants
festive blooms perched at odd
angles on their angelic heads