byLuci Tapahonso
- Leona looked into her daughter's face
knowing they breathe the same memories, the same blood ---
- dark and wet circulating
forever into time and others- who would have thought?
who would have thought ten years ago
- this same woman who seemed destined
to a reckless crazy life: senseless days and
crazy nights could live so calmly?- remember? remember in 1975?
she hitched a ride with that harry tso gang
they were drinking speeding to cortez
for no reason but to get chased by the copsshe jumped out when the car stalled in a sandhill
and everyone ran
- all nine of them scattered in the night
- she ran -- stumbling over bushes
crushing the doorways of prairie dogs
as the 6 police cars surrounded themshe fell--heart pounding, breathing in the dry dirt
- running, running in the moon desert
sweating and crying in the moon nightas the yellow searchlights criss-crossed above
- sour wine breath in the sand
the moon saw her heaving with frightthe police left, she got up breathing heavily
- bits of brush in her hair
when the red tail lights faded into the horizon
- half-crying
Leona had to tell her and she said:
She might have forgotten that night except that
- she started west to home
on a narrow, rough road
Leona was left alone in the summer desert
never, never again, she said
- gritting her teeth.
her daughter had eyes-- dark, black, clear
- like a warm summer night
around midnight or soI know Mom . . .her dark-eyed daughter said
- Once, a long time ago, I was running
from the police late at night . . .
I was watching you for a long time and so I know.You see
it was a common history long before
she came upon it ten years ago.
they shared the same memories and
- who would have thought that
that one night would become
- her daughter's eyes?
From Seasonal Woman by Luci Tapahonso, Tooth of Time Books.
© 1982 Luci TapahonsoBooks by Luci Tapahonso
- A Breeze Swept Through, Univ. New Mexico Press.
- Sáanii Dahataal: The Women Are Singing, Univ. Arizona Press.
- Blue Horses Rush In, Univ. Arizona Press. (Hardcover)
- Children's Books
- Navajo ABC: A Diné Alphabet Book, Eleanor Schick (Illustrator), Aladdin. (Hardcover)
- Songs of Shiprock Fair, Anthony Chee Emerson (Illustrator), Kiva Pub.