canyon de chelly

trailers, dust, Dollar Store, dogs with scabby teats (2012)

the horses know the way
through peach and willow
cottonwoods clattering 
down the canyon
the walls hide us like thighs
red, scarred, Navajo
tattooed with
rattlesnake, elk, thunderbird
within, thick green
we are in the living secret

a man with two black braids
tries to sell us an atolatl
and an arrowhead carved of
the bottom of a beer bottle
his eyes filmy, sclera yellow
I grew up in this canyon, he says
now I live in town.

trailers, dust, Dollar Store
dogs with scabby teats
prowling the gas stations.
The Navajo Times 
reports the election results:
President of the Nation.

now the People make their hogans
of sheetmetal and drywall
but the sky is as it always was
an oracle

and now it’s curdling in the west, there
indigo with rain, opening on another mesa
here, a teenaged boy rides by on his horse
blanket for a saddle, holding the black mane
two pit bulls run behind him, smiling
but he does not smile
he’s wearing big headphones, I hear
hip hop as we pass. I wave
but he does not wave
he rides the ledge of the canyon
touching the lip
   asks and is granted entrance

we have forgotten how to ask
we sign waivers and hand over crumpled bills
and think this is the price of entrance

the billboards in town say
STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE and
RAPE IS A CRIME

kiss the canyon walls
trace the spiral with your finger
whisper a blessing
then slowly
descend

Images by author; Chinle, AZ.