The War Zone By Joy Harjo
Yesterday in the flare of smoke and temper--
we were brilliant warriors weary
from battling each other--
the illuminations of family ghosts
bright red in the storm.
The century is swept toward an inevitable end--
as summer trees sway beneath thunderclouds,
the wind flattening our faces--
Our teeth make refuge for our tongues,
skins pulled tight in the vertigo of fear
under unbearable
pressure.
We go on.
*
From “A Map To the Next World” by Joy Harjo (W.W. Norton: 142 pp., $22.95)
