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God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore cover

God's drum, and other cycles from Indian lore

Chapter 17: DUST EDDIES
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About This Book

A sequence of poems evokes dawn through dusk, prairie winds and dust, ritual dances and spirit songs, and mythic reckonings framed as a red apocalypse. Later cycles portray terraced Pueblo landscapes, potters, corn maidens, and ruined pueblos, while final pieces invoke Aztec gods and cosmology. The language is lyrical and imagistic, alternating intimate observation of natural life with ceremonially inflected reflections on death, renewal, and the drumlike rhythms of the earth.

DUST EDDIES

Whirling dust-clouds dance on the prairies——
Whirling the dust-clouds dance!
Her loosened hair swirls like a dust-cloud!
Her lithe brown arms are tossing aloft!
I see her white teeth flash as she smiles!
Ah, ah! I am a dust-cloud whirling!
Ah, ah! I am a dancing warrior!
I dance, dance, dance, on the prairies!
I dissolve....
Into dust....