dáádílkał
2
Our house on the hill.
They always say in
Navajo -up there or
-in the sky when affixing
our house but this night
it sleets from above.
I have Wrestlemania on
the television. A tape
records. The VCR squalls
after you. This squall
speaks cicadas.
This sound I’m referring
to is known
as their mating call.
after cicadas
mate, the male dies. So does the
female, soon after laying her eggs.
3
Their figures then drop to the
ground to help fertilize the fifth world.
Dust. [at
lea
st
the
go
od
du
st]
must flood the shorelines
4
where
we
lie
with
the
lions
in the
pass
ages
of
his
book
they
dev
our
us
in
our
sleep
we
allow
a
sin
gle
man
to
write
stories
call it
reli
gion
call
it
re
ap
5
This is my denial, my
dáádílkał dáá- squalls time
-diił vibrates blood a threat
close close kaal close
but Here, you mean door. Here,
the translation is not The
translation but A translation.
This is what the door does.
Door stakes the lion and
the lamb bleats from the Hogan. I,
a child blood-close. This night
suffocates close. Pulses of plumes
fall in Safeco Field. On the far
side of the country, twelve Resolutions
bleat. In four days, I will say good-bye to you.
I will lie down in my own close. I
will come down from you. Door from
Yázhí, from Little; does this mean I am
still your child? Of disarmament. A
child of Mom manages the last of
your bills in the kitchen. Of coffee
whistles on the stove. Of empty glasses
float. Of clinks in sink water. This
is the sound of
Good Faith
under- door
Notes:
This poem has special formatting. View a PDF of the poem here.
Source: Poetry (March 2025)