Sara Marie Ortiz
Summer 2023 | Poetry
Two Poems
Chimera
Teaches us all things.
I have the carcass of
A heron About how things are always changing.
Hanging in my office. No matter what we do.
I call him Blue.
If you don't know
I read an "article" in the Times Even a little bit about story
About how you know if you're a true Seattleite.
And most particularly
Never read the comments. The story of
If you get to see the moon The Changer.
And truly see it
Full or not. You should.
In winter.
You are truly lucky.
The moon teaches all things.
About houses.
And their absence.
The Duwamish river
Looking out
Lucky Liquor on Marginal with
The semis
Passing by so loud.
A heron.
And the salmon jumping up
Then back down
And across.
The moon.
The moon,
She.
Hau duwa k’aash’ uwimi?*
“What is light?”
A letting
A gathering
A tightening and
forgetting
Gathered, tightened and tightening light there in them and the bodies of them
The holy people blood born, hewn, and thread bear – we sing in the ghost
voices now and the atoms
in us are seeded light
Ceding it
Breathing and breathless
Pulsate the throttled prayer sentence
Not liturgy but ossuary....
+++++++
I imagine, you, America, chemical blood and mud and drug filled lab-made protein
I imagine, you, America – the last and the letting, the prayer, the poem and the benediction song.
*Whose shoes are these?
Sara Marie Ortiz is a Seattle-based writer of creative nonfiction, poetry, and mixed-genre work. She is an enrolled citizen of the Pueblo of Acoma, a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts (BFA in creative writing) and Antioch University Los Angeles (MFA in creative writing). She has also studied formally law, Native studies and education, theater, and film. She has published widely, has been featured in such publications as the Kenyon Review, the Florida Review, Fulcrum, Ploughshares, and she has presented widely from her beloved birthplace in New Mexico, throughout the Pacific Northwest, and all the way to Johannesburg, South Africa. Sara Marie is also a passionate Native educator and advocate in the realm of Native arts, culture, literature, Tribal languages, education, and community. She currently serves as the Native Education Program Manager for Highline Public Schools in Burien, Washington. She loves watching and studying movies and listening to all kinds of music (especially chilled electronica, old timey bluegrass, neo-Americana, folk, and hip hop), and has a beautiful fluffy orange cat named Mr. Pickles.
Sara recommends Inside (2023) w/ the great Willem Dafoe, and Book on Project 562 by Matika Wilbur https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2023/04/28/1172138168/native-american-tribes-photographs-matika-wilbur