[Gazette Blog Editor's note: Rim Country resident Carrie Backe is the Senior Poet Laureate of Arizona. We recently published the poem that won her that honor and asked for more. This is one she sent to share with Blog readers:]
Kachina
By Carrie Backe
Sunday drive
out of Gallup,
through the sandy hills
of the reservation.
First we saw the cars
parked on the shoulders,
both sides of the road.
Then we heard
the drums.
We know:
where there are drums,
there is dancing.
Where there is dancing,
there is food.
We parked in the dust behind the tribal offices.
Those who knew better
had brought aluminum lawn chairs.
We stood and watched
the costumed dancers
stepping to the beat of
chanting drummers.
Young women and old,
little boys and men,
celebrating, sharing.
Flash of feathers,
gleam of silver banded turquoise,
sway of fringe,
rainbows of bead-embroidered vest,
sash and moccasin.
Fry bread, sticky sweet,
dripping with honey.
Wash it down with a Coke.
From under a canopy,
a Hopi craftsman
offers his hand carved and painted
kachinas.
I buy the one he calls
Rain Dancer.
I will take it home to
Arizona
and pray it does the job.
1 comment:
The extremeist right wing of the Republican party is so stunned at the result of this election, they are thrashing around, lashing out at anything and everything which they don't understand. They thought they could spend multi millions of dollars and spread malicious lies and bully their way into a national platform. Well look what has happened!
At least five or more Tea Party nut cases have been run out of town, including the worst of all Allen West in Florida. Good people finally stood up and said, enough!
Goood people finally got enough gumption to realize they needed to step up and challlenge these smut mongers. And wow, just listen to the screams and cover stories like Rush Limbaugh, who says the welfare dependent Latinos and blacks get all the credit for the Obama win. Racism is still alive and kicking unfortunately.
Good people can't relax until the bigots and fashists are completely driven back under their rocks.
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