More Of My Work

Some Short Story Titles
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“Buffalo Wallow Woman”
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“The Devil and Sister Lena”
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“The Warriors”
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“Becenti”
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“Apparitions”
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“Crane’s Track”
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“Mythomania”
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“Going Home”
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“The Laws”
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“The Sun Is Not Merciful”
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“The Web”
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“Che”
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“Lizette’s Passion”

Novel Titles
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“Ghost Singer"
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"Vows"
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"A Remembrance of the Earth—Maya Suje Mi..."

Other Titles
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“The Sacred (coauthor)"
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"The Sun Is Not Merciful"
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"Talking Indian"
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"The Pawnee"
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"The Spirit of Native America"

II
Hinúñe,
we back track to earlier incarnations, no more than dew,
no less than orbiting ponds,
pink cocoons, and blooms
on tight braided vines.
We are countless revivals
in the Great Mystery.
Hinúñe
do not blink,
lest a particle of anything
is missed,
floating moss,
algae gracing foamy tides,
subtle disintegrations,
reintegration.
Do not flinch
at selflessness
flowing toward
bottomless seas.
It's not
the same departure
of self
triggered by social tyranny.
One is muted,
the other screams.
Observe everything.
Hinúñe,
our intent now
is truth.
We are wandering
nomads
hunting afar much too long,
seeking sanctuary
that exists
only in one place.
(We didn't know sooner,
at earliest consciousness,
to brush at its fog,
for flesh and blood
details to arise.
Instead,
rescuing horses materialized.
Or, perhaps,
truly it was not that
we didn't know
our predicament immediately.
We might have backed off
from an immensity there.)
We started out feeling
there was no choice
but to go forth alone.
though some people say,
eyebrows arched,
"We always choose."
Transition is the root
of everything.

Hinúñe,
our horses
have put on regalia
to go their own way.
Exquisite buckskin dolls,
the length of a human hand,
full of earthy fragrance,
eagle down,
are tied into rippling manes
and swishing tails.
The dolls' eyes are open wide,
and stare back at us.
Innocent, old.
Their long black hair blows. (Remember what grandma said, "Don't make such heart-felt things. They become full-blown
streaks of wind."
And we listened
and didn't do that,
play with dolls,
or throw them down
or rip them up
in clumsy or curious
hands or rage.)
Look closely,
mended dolls.
Hinúñe,
Our horses stand
in sunbeams,
faint,
glowing,
facing the old god,
all healing forces.
The specters glimmer
we included.
The horses stir,
blur. Whoosh!
They vanish
but we are whole,
newborn.
Let's live again!
© 2024
Definition of hinúñe: sister, in
Jiwere language
,

My Work
A POEM FOR SISTERHOOd
Hinúñe


I
Sister (Hinúñe),
we ride
phantom horses,
streaks of whirling air,
untethered, patterns
chanted long ago
to here.
Hinúñe,
phantoms are real.
Some are motherless
or fatherless places
we often trot through,
where our hearts
thump erratically
over what is
or is not there.
All tracks are gone.
Just etchings
wriggle on our palms.
Everything points here.
Hinúñe,
on phantom horses
we escape
stinging nettles
and razor snares,
time and time again.
Each getaway
is a close call,
yet we hang on
to the fiery spirit
at our core,
do not plunge
or disappear.
We arrive here.
Hinúñe,
our chargers stop,
the world ends, too.
In these breaks
we observe ourselves
paint cave images
of fearlessness
with infinite care
on our faces and limbs,
crepey and translucent
at the same time,
the paint bleeds,
bare images freeze,
slide off fingertips.
All the pieces
snap tightly together.
We breathe deeply here.
Hinúñe,
phantom horses
look sideways,

watch us
mouth the word
“Sister,” silently.
Let it not be spoiled.
Only streaks of air
hear.
Hinúñe,
our steeds
lift us,
just as we are,
or maybe they
transport us
as goddesses,
or bags of dust,
or something else
profane,
sinew of what is
or what if,
to places
never dreamed,
and they fling
us far from
where we set out
to land stunned
on new ground,
in unexpected grace,
childlike, innocent,
(we are neither)
surprised, joyful
the circumstances
bring us safely here.
Hinúñe
this name,
a flowering thing
tends wounds,
and heeds call.
Chanted in fervor
long ago, it
delivers us here