Poem: from Being of Water

This is a poem from my book, Being of Water. The italicized words are from my teachers, Richard Bugbee and Jane Thing Dumas. They are talking about the ways of learning to be respectful of all.

***

*

*

*

(richard:)

you didn’t ask questions

you were with others & watched & picked things up

something took, your skill

the one you watched eventually saying, here, & begins

to show you how

 

as a kid looking through the willow branches

the bear dancers’

secret

was what you might come to know

 

my father was in construction in the 50s

so that’s what i did

now i call it destruction

now i work with plants

 

make willow and tule huts

 

*

 

(jane:)

i worry about the people, especially when

someone says they have diabetes

we don’t say “my diabetes”

it’s like a stray dog coming to your door

it’s not yours

i say, “i’m going to take my survival pill”

 

the ones who knew how and when

to set the fires

and the ceremonialists

 

no one knows how now

 

*

 

what was hidden from you as a kid

looking

 

through the willow boughs

 

*

 

my mother helping my husband who came back

from the war with malaria

the doctors said he’d need pills

the rest of his life

 

we’ve lost a lot but not everything

 

she wouldn’t tell me

about her healing

she’d say go get

that plant

 

she’d say come in

even when we only had tortillas

in the house

 

she’d help you heal

 

we would have to go to school

my uncle thought it was important

to have an education

because we would need it

 

we didn’t know in the 20s

how the land’s face

would change

 

i’d have to work on ranches

if i hadn’t gone to school

 

ranch to ranch

 

became an assembly worker at honeywell

then asked to

be a community health worker

so i did

and waitress

 

i’d hug an adult who was sick

and saw them feel better

it helped the medicine take effect

 

certain parts of our body go to sleep

if we don’t give them attention

 

another uncle told us to be respectful

it was 1933 and we were fooling around

we didn’t know what he meant

when he said we would need it

and then in a few years the next world war came

 

 

*

 

why are rattlesnakes woven into the baskets?

to keep out the rodents

***

*

*

*

Copyright (c) Julia Doughty

 

Share