STORIES FROM INDIGENOUS CULTURES 109
CEREMONY IN ZUNI
At Zuni: The Guard of the First Kiva
What are you doing here?
The voice is stern and strong
Like the heavy smoke
Of pinyon burning
Sound of drums
And dancers’ feet,
My own heart
Pounding in the darkness
As the hand before us
Bars our way
There are other dark faces
Behind him
Cold like the air
We are the Other
Here
I
Am
Afraid
To enter
We must speak the
The longing
That we cannot name
The words are not mine,
They swim like bottom fish
Through a dark river
The words are our medicine
Bundles, our amulets
They say who we are
How we found our way here
The words shape themselves
To the sound of the drum