River, Blood, And Corn Literary Journal

Privilege

By M. Carmen Lane

you

are only

interested

in the dead

pieces of

black woman

raped/

tracked

by white men

with bottles

stones

lesbian/

who lost

her lover

daughter

witness to

too much

violence

suicide/

dull blade

time release

pills

mother/

baby that

never took

its first

breath

Indian

without

his song

father/

whose

children were

stolen because

they are

queer

addict/ hands

dried with

nicotine &

blood

you are

only interested

in the grief &

trauma

a moaning song

eyes that

have seen

too much

nose that

smells your

shit from

afar

feet soppy

of your

entitled

mess

shrunk

down

powerful

sweeping/

your house

to a horrifying

clean

parts

left on

the dying

tree/ rotting

flesh dried on

an old rope

your daddy’s

whipping post/

crucified in a

jail cell/ dusty

road to

drag me

limp

he/

who was

between

an ancestor’s

legs

bastard

runaway

musician

stopped

at the edge

of jazz

poet/ never

shared her

good words

dancer/ who

dared not

to deform

her feet

warrior

whose

resistance

warranted

no tale

listen closely

you sonofabitch

those parts

of me

alive &

well/

untangled

smooth

as a scar

they/ are

coming for

you

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M. Carmen Lane (African-American/Mohawk/Tuscarora) is a poet, cultural worker and consultant. Carmen's work has been published in Red Ink Magazine, The Yellow Medicine Review and is a contributor to the Lambda Literary Award nominated anthology Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. She is the author of Calling Out After Slaughter
www.lanecatalytics.com

Sky Woman

By M. Carmen Lane

uprooted

& pushed

through

stillness

came for

there was

nothing

left to do

but fall

onto the

smooth/

bumpy back

of Turtle

watch

as Nana’s

primordial

soil spreads

bringing

equilibrium

woods

& water

purpose

unknown/

this new

world

is waiting

for you

my sons

I pass on

pregnant

thoughts

of good will/

possibility

unmoving

unable to

let all

the grief

I carried too

the shadow

side of

joy

tangled

energy

my offspring

will play out

this tension

over & again

my head on

a pike

even ceremony

will not be

enough

we must

examine again

our resistance

like the

ancestors

uprooted/

falling

through

into new

life

M. Carmen Lane, author of Calling Out After Slaughter

M. Carmen Lane (African-American/Mohawk/Tuscarora) is a poet, cultural worker and consultant. Carmen's work has been published in Red Ink Magazine, The Yellow Medicine Review and is a contributor to the Lambda Literary Award nominated anthology Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature.
www.lanecatalytics.com

Kimberly L. Becker, Poet

In the Purple and Blue of It

—From Words Facing East By Kimberly L. Becker

Walking the property

In the late afternoon

In the purple and blue of it

The stand of pines

Fairytale deepness

Past the reservoir

Crunching hulls of black walnuts

Thinking:

This is sacred ground

My eyes devour the view

That I like to claim as mine

But know it’s not, despite the deed

When I return to the anxiety

Of the city

I will long for this land

As a lover for the body of the beloved

I will recall its voice

The trickle of creek

call of hawks

rain as it comes up the valley

I have seen mesas

Great red tables

Altars for sacrifice

But it is these mountains

I hold against the bruise of my heart

The purple and blue

Of their mothering forms

Purple and blue

Words Facing East (WordTech Editions, 2011)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in Georgia, raised in North Carolina, Kimberly L. Becker is a member of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers and is of Cherokee/Celtic/Teutonic descent. She is the author of two poetry collections, Words Facing East (WordTech Editions, 2011) and The Dividings (WordTech Editions, 2014). Individual poems appear widely in journals and anthologies. Other published writing includes fiction, essays, reviews, and a series of interviews with other Native writers. Current projects include adapting traditional Cherokee stories into plays for the Cherokee Youth in Radio Project at the Cherokee Youth Center in Cherokee, North Carolina. Kimberly has been awarded grants from the New Jersey State Arts Council, the Montgomery County Arts and Humanities Council (Maryland), as well as a fellowship to the Hambidge Artist Residency Program in the North Georgia mountains. She has held an Individual Artist Award in Poetry from the Maryland State Arts Council and been Writer-in-Residence at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities (North Carolina). She has been a featured reader at many venues, including "Native Writers in DC" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. She is happiest within sight of the mountains.
www.kimberlylbecker.com

Manufactured Stress and Prayers for Peace

by Alice Rose Crow Maar’aq

Manufactured Stress

Manufactured stress creates false anxiety

to do their work

They watch through one-way glass

as you tire on the exercise wheel

first patented generations ago (on mice)

Add enticers to help you

Concede you prefer their bidding

Soon I hear you blubber

it was your idea all along

Your iluraq say they inherited positions

on the grind from our ancestors

long to believe you carry Tradition

when proudly raising an Indigene flag

If history began today

what would those anthropologists observe of you?

What do our children see?

Smile for their cameras

II.

Back then I mopped floors

tried scrubbing away the old stain

of muddy feet trekking to the mouse room

a kind of one-way mirror

They didn’t see me

I saw them emerge from their watch room

one paid the other for a bet made over you

He cashed in

when she said they could make you spin fastest

to the beat of their drum

Prayers for Peace

The wind carries prayers for peace

in winter prayers sting like the biting north wind

meet exposed tear-stained cheeks

Tears freeze and are wiped away

Prayers are heard

After the cold we go to our river

where prayers do not meet deaf ears

Alone we cannot send the ice to sea

Our faith is measured when every spring

what’s frozen becomes dangerous

rots

and is sent away

“Manufactured Stress,” “Prayers for Peace,” “Ilumun No. 1” first appeared in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies (Volume 23, Number 2, Special Issue: Indigenous Women, University of Nebraska Press). 2002.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alice Rose Crow~Maar’aq was born and raised on the Kusquqvak insouthwest Alaska and nests in Spenard. Her work appears in the Brevity blog, Camas, Yellow Medicine Review, River, Blood and Corn, Retort, Frontiers, and Standards. Her book-length collection, An Offering of Words, is well-underway. Crow works with Chip Livingston and Elissa Washuta to earn a seat as a member of the inaugural class of the Institute of American Indi(genous)an Arts low-rez MFA in Creative Writing Program. She is a member of the Orutsararmuit Native Council and is an original Calista and Bethel Native Corporation shareholder.

Something to Do on a Dark, Windy Day

By Michelle Pichon

When the day is dark

and the wind is blowing

hard and continuously

through the trees

bending them

like blades of grass

go outside

close your eyes

and imagine the sound

is a crowd

screaming

cheering

just

for you

moons and flowers bloom

I held your hand

and you felt something

alive in me

your blind eyes saw beneath my skin

what I was not ready to perceive

your glowing face and shining laughter

embraced the light in me

and blessed it with your touch

I held your hand

and felt your moon

alive in you

alive in me

your blind eyes masking your real sight

where visions are bright

and dance and sing in chorus

all around you

we held hands

and flowers grew between them

you said it was good

and I finally saw it too

Michelle Pichon is a Louisiana Creole with roots in Slidell and Isle Brevelle, Louisiana. Teaching English at Northwestern State University is her bread and butter but poetry is her chocolate cake and Sauvignon Blanc at the end of the day. She has previously been published in Country Roads, Xavier Review, and Louisiana English Journal. She is co-founder of Down River Art Gang (DRAG) where she and her friends put on killer multi-cultural, multi-genre art shows and other events.

You can follow Michelle on Tumblr http://mpichon.tumblr.com

Privilege

Sky Woman

Kimberly L. Becker, Poet

Manufactured Stress and Prayers for Peace

Something to Do on a Dark, Windy Day

River, Blood, And Corn Literary Journal: A Community of Voices