Luci Tapahonso
- who were you that night
after all the beer you drank that long winter day- who were you?
angry at nothing and everyone
- who were you?
- you drove too fast for the winding canal road
- swerving to the very edge
where darkened weeds shivered in your rage
- swerving to the very edge
- i followed you
- my pleading a hardened ache
you took the night in shreds- white clouds of breath hung in between screams
the terror of a sudden billow of dust- not into the ditch no
on the road fading yellow light spilling out
dust and brakes causing dogs- to bark with a hoarse urgency
- white clouds of breath hung in between screams
- my pleading a hardened ache
- frozen mud glistening
- crumbling as you stumbled
through cold, stinging bushes
and how did you fall- did you slip on a transparent beer bottle?
(They catch the sharp light of the moon
and at a certain angle, even the stars)
or did you slip on a rock
flat and round
slick with winter frost?
- did you slip on a transparent beer bottle?
who were you that night dying in angry drunkenness?- hard, winter stars
motionless in
the crisp dark night
the moon, the white moon
- crumbling as you stumbled
From A Breeze Swept Through by Luci Tapahonso, West End Press.
© 1987 Luci Tapahonso
Books by Luci Tapahonso
- A Breeze Swept Through, Univ. New Mexico Press.
- Sáanii Dahataal: The Women Are Singing, Univ. Arizona Press.
- Blue Horses Rush In, Univ. Arizona Press. (Hardcover)
- Children's Books
- Navajo ABC: A Diné Alphabet Book, Eleanor Schick (Illustrator), Aladdin. (Hardcover)
- Songs of Shiprock Fair, Anthony Chee Emerson (Illustrator), Kiva Pub.
- Sáanii Dahataal: The Women Are Singing, Univ. Arizona Press.
