Open Letter from Aboriginal Elder ‘Auntie’ Beve: “Protect Our Sacred Women’s Fertility Site from Mining”

Rise up in prayer for we know that the ancestors created those NASCA lines for reason. We the Navajo Nation know the trembling of the legs of mother earth for we walked it long ago and now. Forced to dig into the land felt like the rape of the mother. Rise in prayer...Albuquerque Papa's hold signs on Moon that they regret lost Fatherhood...

Almost Si

I lie on a table

legs spread, still feet

stirrupped and stripped

of socks and dignity

from the waist down

gown hiked up

I am splayed and sprayed

with anti-something

from a bottle

so cold.

I stand in a recovery

room

trying to remember how feet slip

through leg holes of underpants

almost forgot to recall

“take out the packing”

some voice had said

what?...oh yeah

I am packed

I pull out the gauze

freeing feet of bloody

tickertape announcing

the capacity of a vagina

to hold

so much.

Cotton

I sit in the silence of others

now gripped by cramps and

tucked nicely into maxi-pads

we are given cookies and juice

and I wait for my mother to pick me up.

xteen

...Drums...know styx

...Sage...fuckin' kick ass

World wide