Desert Stars
Twenty-three sovereign nations in New Mexico
Most planted along the Rio Grande
Like Buffalo gourd
Where no one and everyone is responsible
Power, control
I mean Jurisdictions
I mean a Nexus
We are well adapted to
The desert
Like Cacti
Lovely blooms of magenta
Instead we are neglected like overgrown
squash shells hidden under the sun
Taken and then
Forgotten
At birth we are composed of 270 bones
Carefully crafted by creator's hands like a Yamaha
piano
Why are we not honored like the soft pottery that sits
on your shelf
For your guests to gaze at
We too come form the same clay
That you admire
I will dance for them
until they are home
Let their names wrap around your spine
Like tendrils grown from ancestors' prayers
Amber Pinto
Anderson Scott
Angel Roanhorse
Anna Curley
The human nervous system is complex
I read once that if you joined the peripheral nerves from
One end to the other
It would wrap around the world two and a half times
Like community love
Bound by our songs
Your child is my child
Ashley Collins
James Willie
Tiffany Reid
Like the law of nature
They are the stars so far away that your eyes cannot see
Yet they are still here
We are still here
I will catch our tears in a blanket
Until they are home
So that their loved ones may
wash them in salt waters
where healing begins
rebirth
transcendence
I tap my chest to the beat of my heart
A lifeline to the universe
Let the milky way guide you home
Mark Aguilar
Zacharia Shorty
Misty Bedonie
Calvin Martinez
Let hope continue to lift our
Shoulders
Until their smiles connect with ours
From this dawn to the next
We will rise
Pray
And rise again
