This poem is about my great uncle, my grandmother's
little brother, Bitsilí [?
Pubby ?].
He was hit by a white woman and nothing was ever done about it.
And the intergenerational trauma of alcoholism is also woven in.
Lily became a black cloud sheep, 2010.
Without [? ts'in ?], without [? ts'in ?]
Grandma's fingers streamed down calloused rock skin
like arroyo ghost.
Varnish.
Ashkíí diigis as I remember, Mickey's in his last
Without [? ts'in ?], without [? ts'in ?]
Grandma's fingers kiss sand for sink mud to rug,
Tug ashkíí diigis from ripping into her last woven rug
1975.
Dig, dig, dig, dig
Lily, behind the loom, packs black sheep yarn
to weave Bitsilí [?
Pubby ?] into her pictorial rug
Jokes about not having to die, this one
Save me some time, she says
Dig, dig, dig, dig
Lily in front of a meadow jail loom in Farmington, New Mexico.
Wore her church coral forward past the guards,
But still, Bitsilí [?
Pubby ?] walked out with his tail between his legs
Cost me my dime, she says
Dig, dig dig dig
1989.
Lily, beneath her headscarf, spindle in hand,
Never chooses night wool again with crusty dough in hand
Háájí?
Háájí, shitsilí?
she says.
Shhh, shhh!
Came the static from KTNN, the voice of the Navajo Nation
Lily finds Bitsilí [?
Pubby ?] in the radio waves
Silver Dennehotso rodeo buckle, white tie-dye shirt
with an orange cat
Black cowboy hat and freshly shaved, they say, shhh, shhh!
Lily's soul was mighty for seven days
Bitsilí [? Pubby ?] was found on the side of the road
in Kirtland, New Mexico
Was hit by a white woman as if he was just a stray dog
A 30 minute inconvenience for her, parked her Suburban
and opened a can of peas,
Carved a chicken and ignored the carcass's injustice broadcasted
Shhh, shhh!
2010 again
With {? ts'in ?], with [? ts'in ?].
atones for his, but can barely form a sen-ten-sss
And grandma Lily became a black cloud.
Sheep
Swells in the sky before ashkíí goes diigis
Brings the rain for ashkíí to remember he still has [?
ts'in, ts'in ?]
Grandma Lily became a black cloud sheep
for ashkíí diigis and Bitsilí carcass.
Drunks still need their tó, she says.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]