Beauty in the Darkness

Pushing the benches into a circle, her path

to the center from the West, she walked East

to sit among us, no higher no lower we were all living beings

Equals with stories to tell, as she asked from us,

pulling them with a gentle song in her voice.

Red Cardinal woman burned sage in a shell the shape of her hand,

fingernails glinting in the flickering light

Echoing the fire outside the building.

Auntie perked up when the blaze was mentioned, and headed the line

a young woman leading her people in pace with her,

her years fell away as we all laughed and spoke words for our feet to tread on.

It was beauty in the dark, watching her shape swaying

the fire flickered at the end of her path

Our people doubled in number and the

Wind blew in from the East, telling us this was where we were

meant to sit this whole time, if we’d just have listened.

Lilting breezes blew ash and spark in our eyes as we spoke of creation

We grew small with her as she told of being punished as a child,

Locked into an oven for escaping the fences

No gates could hold her, small feet scrabbling to freedom

To walk with the wild things, unhindered,

We blurred away with the cinders into the stars above us

Dew cold on our toes

Energy of tree lives sparking in firelight before

Warming our noses as Turquoise Boy climbed through the hole in the sky

Coyotes singing us to the clouds with them

We held smoke in our hair, our arms around each other.