Simon Ortiz
-
Grants, Okie town
Texans from the oilfields
come to dig uranium
for Phillips Petroleum.
Milan, mobile home town.
- West,
semis busting gut, gears snarling.
- West for California.
Navajos leaning on the walls.- West. pass on by,
see you on the way back.
Real Indian Village,
reptiles, moccasins, postcards 5¢
restrooms, free water.
Coolidge.
Continental Divide.
North Chavez.
Iyanbito, a Shell Oil Co. Refinery.- West, you see
Red Gods emerging from the cliffs
several miles north
of the Santa Fe railroad
Keep going.
on the hills, rows and rows
of bunkers, freight cars pulling away
loaded for war, for Vietcong.- West. A Cadillac
with a fat white cat
and a blonde teenybopper.
where an Indian man waits.
We stop for him and he runs to us.
Where are you going?
Gallup.- West. California is too far.
Once, I been to California.
Got lost in L.A., got laid
in Fresno, got jailed in Oakland,
got fired in Barstow,
and came home
shit geesus, the heat is impossible,
the cops wear riot helmuts,
357 magnums and smirks, you better
not be Indian. Bail's low though.
Indian Ceremonial August 7-10,
the traders bring their cashboxes,
the bars are standing room only
and have bouncers who are mean,
wear white hats and are white.- West, sometimes I feel like
going on.
West into the sun at evening.
- West,
From Woven Stone by Simon Ortiz (originally from A Good Journey), Vol. 21, in Sun Tracks an American Indian Literary Series, University of Arizona Press
© 1992 Simon Ortiz
Books by Simon Ortiz
- Woven Stone, Simon Ortiz, Univ. Arizona Press. (Hardcover)
- Men on the Moon : Collected Short Stories, Simon Ortiz, Univ. Arizona Press. (Hardcover)
- After and Before the Lightning , Simon Ortiz, Univ. Arizona Press. (Hardcover)
- Speaking for the Generations : Native Writers on Writing, Simon Ortiz (Editor), Univ. Arizona Press.
- From Sand Creek : Rising in This Heart Which Is Our America, Simon Ortiz, Univ. Arizona Press.
- The People Shall Continue, Simon Ortiz, Children's Book Press. (Library Binding)
- Men on the Moon : Collected Short Stories, Simon Ortiz, Univ. Arizona Press. (Hardcover)
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