(Poem) Rainbow girl by Donna Snyder

brown bug crawls across rainbow girl’s face but she doesn’t care
she holds the sacred plant in her hands and faces east
leads the people on the rainbow way
hagoneh
thank you
it is good
sweets come wrapped in velvet
but the goodies are gone
a red ribbon for your hand

time is that way
leaves you behind in a velvet blouse
looking at silver hairs in the mirror
the young ones call you shimasani
grandmother
the ancient one
the one who talks for all
the powerful one
mother of the world

there is a joker spying from a waning moon
coyote grins
he knows the light will come again
spread its milky feathers on the rocks and mesas
rainbow girl bows into the wind 
her earrings dangle turquoise like teardrops for her people and their ways
the future is a blue glass bottle
break it if you will

or unstop it and let the teardrops catch there
to drink when rains forget they love the sky
and brown bugs no longer crawl across paintings in the sand

Navajo sand painting

Navajo sand painting

 


Get automatically notified for daily posts.

0 thoughts on “(Poem) Rainbow girl by Donna Snyder”

  1. This is such strong, terracotta writing, Donna. Myth-making words & what consolingly wise words at the end. Thank you for such beauty.

Leave a Reply to the main post