Influx—Reservation Lockdown
By Max Early
Turquoise skies blindfold horizon,
black sash-belt morning.
Half-filled coffee cup with cream.
Pool stick lingers by barstool.
Cascading stacks of eggshells
crackle on cedar in smoking firebox.
She pinches clay fingerbowls,
painted cloud designer dreams.
Albino Coyote’s ruling class
finger-points ’til arm goes numb.
Now arriving at Herbal Oshá Balms,
airplane touches down on stained glass.
Red-eye flight on Tiffany runway,
pilot shakes moccasin rattle.
Jingle dress dancers revive health
through aisles of canceled powwows.
Distant squash blossom phone calls
from shooting-star ribbon elders
wearing coral silver bead necklaces.
They string bows with damp sinew.
Dove plumes flutter on warm breeze,
a cellular prayer without towers.
He tosses cornhusks over bridge
by floating eagle carcass.
Waterfall trickles through driftwood
skeletons of cholla cactus.
Arroyo creek walls,
what stifles the laughter of an enemy?
Pottery shards crush to sand,
baby blanket sifts uranium bones.
Village of dayrise and sunfall
framed in field of tall wheat.
Windows of abandoned bodies
ladder electric ventilators.
His concealed rest departs the dweller.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2022)