Dennis Tedlock: Six More Poems from Alcheringa

The Year

First comes
Broken Branches Moon
the snow is heavy
next
Snowless Road Moon
it snows
but it doesn’t stick to the road
next
Little Wind Moon
when the snow is in patches
next
Big Wind Moon
next
Nameless Moon
next
Turnabout Moon
next
Broken Branches Moon
also called Rooster Pull
the time of the rodeo
next
Snowless Road Moon
also called Get-together
Look-at-one-another
next
Little Wind Moon
next
Big Wind Moon
also called Pick-the-ears-of-corn
next
Nameless Moon
when they set the date for the dancers
next
Turnabout Moon
All these twelve together are called
time-surpasses-itself.

Winter Solstice

Here is the place of fear
for four days
no greasy foods are eaten
there is no coffee
no trade
all places of business are closed
for ten days
no sweepings
no garbage is taken out of the house
no fire is taken out of the house
not even cigarettes are lighted outside
people shouldn’t use their cars
the street lights are all turned out
this is the middle of time.

Recipe

Fill a bowl with hot water
add, to taste:
dried leaves of wild mint
ground chili
onions
dried chinchweed flowers
wolfberries
& venison jerky.
This is called
hot-bowl
it is
an ancient dish.

Cornshucking


Pull down the husk
all around
then twist it all off at once
with the stem
put the dry ears in this pile
for us
put the damp ears
the moldy ears in this one
for the hogs
& throw the shucks out there
some of the ears are yellow
some are blue
red
white
some are pretty
the multicolored ones
some are black
look for the Fully-Finished-Ear
without a single kernel missing
right to the very tip
a deer, a buck
wears that one on his breast
& the Flat-Ear
with a forked tip
a doe wears that one on her breast
& the Road-Ear
with a groove down its whole length
runners wear that one on their backs
now here it is
a Fully-Finished-Ear
but it’s wet
I’ll put it at the edge of the good pile
& here is an ear
yellow, but
each kernel
is tinged with red
it’s sort of pretty
there’s no name for this one
I’ll put it here on the fence rail
maybe I’ll do something with it later.

When The Witches Are Out

On the road at night
we caught a deer in the headlights
he didn’t know which way to go
he came toward us
turning left & right
in the lights
we stopped
he cut left through the sunflowers
into the dark
we went up to the house
so our nephew could get his rifle
on our way back down the road
there was another car coming
far off
his lights went out
we rode all the way down past
where the deer was
& there was no deer
& no car.

The Two Of Them

The Zuni
& the anthropologist
walk a narrow road
to the tip of the mesa
to see the Hopi Snake Dance
between two sheer drops
the Zuni says
to the anthropologist
- Both sides!
You jump one way
& I’ll jump the other.

[Additional poems from this series -- with a note on Dennis Tedlock -- appeared earlier in Poems and Poetics.]