WED 06.30.07-- CAMPFIRE STORIES (for OneFeather)

'It is night now and I'm looking up at the stars, or what I can see of them through the orange light that permanently domes our metropolis. I'm trying to imagine the constellations through the haze. Trying to connect it all.'

And well, the injun query. Where to begin, kemosabe? When I was younger I lived in Deerfield, and always believed that my house- most of the town maybe- was built on Indian burial grounds. And I strongly identified with the slaughter of the millions upon millions of Indians by white man that went mysteriously absent from the glossy textbooks we were handed in gradeschool.

In the night during halfdream an Indian Warrior would regularly visit... my spirit guide... with a robust breastplate of wooden sticks, elaborate facepaint, and headdress. And I knew everything was okay. One night after such a visit, I wandered downstairs, and it was pure synchronicity. Wherever my eyes would happen to glance were reassuring words. A random newspaper headline "Bright Future...", a note on the fridge "...Good things to come". It was truly incredible. I walked outside and began to wander across the dark backyard towards the creek, over which was a small mud hill I used to play on. I knew the Indians- the real live Indians were back there waiting to meet me... but I became scared and quickly withdrew.

I identify very closely with Black Elk, who as you might know was a Lakota shaman. I have taken journeys... odd and beautiful kinds of waking dreams. Our culture doesn't understand (outside of one episode of Northern Exposure) the role of the shaman. Our current ideologies cannot support the excruciating disconnect- the triumphant return- which was embraced by the tribes as sacred. When the next pup in the tribe starts to 'freak out' they call the shaman in and he brings him out of it... and that pup generally becomes the next shaman. And so on. And so on.

song for black elk

So Black Elk told me that it was not my fault that all the Indians died. And for this I love Black Elk. And Black Elk loves me.

During one of my dreams I was chosen by all the tribes to be the leader of the 'five hoops'. One old injun rode up on horseback outside to confirm that I was to represent his tribe. Then another injun. Then another. Then another until there was a line of about 70 old decorated Native Americans all proclaiming that I was to represent them. There was one tribe that had no living members left... and suddenly in the space between the two horses where said representative was supposed to ride up... the dirt on the ground stirred... and out came a decayed corpse- still in injun garb... to confirm his selection as well...

They decided that I was to be called "Okaboki Minitonka" which meant "black sheep who runs with white sheep who think they are black sheep". Later on in my adventure I was to learn of my counterpart female "Okaboni Minitonka" which meant "white sheep who runs with black sheep who think they are white sheep". My quest went unfufilled. [ed. note: the rough Lakota translation for 'Okaboki Minitonka' is 'peaceful Lake Michigan']


THURS 07.12.07-- QUEST FUFILLED

raging bar
sherpas abound
charolette taps foot against my chair

connection is made
but will it be lost
o says no inside and out

crazy tobacco man
gives different addresses
where he works
makes no sense

and then i'm left to wonder why
duh
you guys said it wouldn't matter
bringing out the big guns
is that the best that you can do

see you at the duke's tomorrow
smokeless


SAT 10.13.07-- NEWS FLASH

The word snarky is  snarky.


SAT 04.12.08-- DID I MENTION

...last night I had a dream that I was in the 4th dimension? It was très bizarre. Everybody had two symmetrical faces and walked in unusual patterns down unusual halls. Somebody threw a book to me and it didn't go in a straight line, but rather it spiralled around me before I caught it.

Then I was a bird flying over a Hillary Clinton fundraiser or something. She said "that's not Steffey, is it?" I guess she knew I wasn't a supporter. I asked crow how the universe knew it was me. Crow said some name that I didn't recognize. I asked how that person knew it was me. Crow said "Amy", a friend of mine from high-school who lives in Australia.

I have all these intense dreams and then I wake up to a strange depression. Shit- is this all there is? I try to go back to sleep to recapture all the magic and it's just gone. When I was dreaming all this I knew I was dreaming and I thought it would inform my waking world. That all this is temporal. All this strife is folly. Hm.


SUN 08.17.08-- FIRST WE WERE OURSELVES

then we slowly floated to the glass ceiling
and our bodies evaporated
souls coasting back to the ground

we took other forms
and our reflections in the glass doors
told me we were now teen girls
hit on by dirty men
and after advances rejected
they began their stabbing
knives swished through
as if we were ghosts
we continued unharmed
you yourself and i a stout brown dog
after awhile
i became myself again
pinned you hotly up against the wall

even without heels still taller than i
my hands wrapped around your sides
thumbs at twelve o'clock
you in a white wife-beater
through which i see
rims of nipple rings

"you're much smarter than i am"
i insist "take a look!"
so you ambulate around
this menagerie of coincidences peering
then back to the wall
beneath my fingers again

"in all my experience i cannot explain"
you profess
"you can't tell me it's not real"
i say
and the metamorphasis begins

for safety height diminishes
and you become your older sister
"don't do that"
i implore
for defense your eyes roll back
head shrinks and wrinkles
hair into wisps
"you're scaring the hell out of me"
i manage out white lips
and again you return to self
like a boat tossed now righted

you complement me.

SAT 09.06.08-- SCANDANAVIAN SWIM COACH

after two births
through different sized valves
borne in water she caught me
strong arm and luscious breast
"i'm only good at freestyle" i said
and after a few minutes
she burrowed us away in a bathroom
and showed me everything
she a stream
and the mist came over me
through cupped hand