Northern New Mexico
In my mind
it begins,
a Pow Wow
of dance,
chant,
drum,
lofting
my Anglo dreams
to heights
of ritual
more ancient
than Columbus.
Despite the festive air,
masked figures,
I don’t
recognize as Native,
badged and holstered,
lurk in the shadows,
beyond
the drum circle—
waiting.
*
I try to sense,
living as I do,
in Indian Country,
what you,
a Native American,
feel like
awakening now
to a face
in the mirror,
that greets
morning’s light,
not with a smile,
but fear
your complexion,
perhaps only a shade
darker than mine,
might find you
in ICE’s
angry grasp,
two steps away
from expulsion.
*
Identity docs,
once sacred sources
of pride,
and connection,
sat vaulted
in your tribal home,
rarely,
if ever,
in need
of exposure,
to the world
outside.
Now,
I’m told,
you dare not leave
the reservation,
without
your paper shields
of origin.
*
Your biggest fear—
how could I not feel
the same—
likely separation
from your children,
an old fear,
dating back
to early last
century,
when federal agents,
as if yesterday,
drag off
Native offspring
to attend
schools,
to acquire
more “whiteness”.
A curriculum
leading often
to forced labor
and early death,
as history’s
numerous
graves attest.
*
I hesitate,
these days,
to stroll
the town square,
birthed
and sustained
by Puebloans
like yourself,
long before
the arrival
of Europeans.
I reel,
with broken heart,
as ICE grabs you
off the street,
to challenge
your sovereign right,
stretching back
a thousand years,
to call America
home.
Dick Altman writes in the thin, magical air of Old West’s high desert plains, where, at 7,000 feet, reality and imagination often blur. He is published in the American Journal of Poetry, Santa Fe Literary Review, Fredericksburg Literary Review, Foliate Oak, Landing Zone, Cathexis Northwest Press, Humana Obscura, Haunted Waters Press, and others here and abroad. His work also appears in the first edition of The New Mexico Anthology of Poetry, published by the New Mexico Museum Press. Pushcart Prize nominee and poetry winner of Santa Fe New Mexican’s annual literary competition, he has authored over 290 poems, published on four continents.
