Turkey Buzzard
I am going to tell you a story, a story told to me by my grandfather. I am Dineh, the people of the Southwestern United States. I was told about the animals and their roles or how they became the …
Fiction
Student 2022
Writing Contest Honorable Mentions
Growing up Coyote in the Wolf Clan
All night the buzz of complaining lights keeps us employed. Our days are the drain and water circling. From the foreign places we feel labor, work being done. Cousin wolf sings about pawning love like it is inheritance. A song …
The Personalities of Pens
Often, I will look at a pen and wonder what is its personality. Every pen has a unique feel, an aura, and personality. When ink meets paper there is a specific interaction depending on what type of pen is in …
Thunderous Love
Clouds rumbled from the far northeast side of our hogan, red sand gently picked up with the wind, and a cool breeze ran in from opening the door. “Close the door, the heat needs to stay inside,” Grandma said as …
the witch
ho’ok lived here stitching fire into skin phoenix was a sunlit city, she wanted to spit at it every time the sun kissed her ho’ok worked at social services on the rez drove on clay colored freeways as dawn broke …
Saturday Night Mania
It’s Saturday night in the psych ward, half past witching hour, lights switched off to phantom black. The psych ward becomes a cityscape, a night skyline in a sterile hospital. When I turn the power on, the corridors brighten, a …
Díí ’Óólyé, This Is What It Means
“Shí’ee’ ’éí łeezh bee łíbá sílį́į́’ lá. My clothes became adorned with dust and dirt. ’Áko t’óó nízhónígo shí ’éé’ bík’ídíídláád. The Sun ribbons beautifully adorned my clothes.”
On the Mysterious Power of Language
“In languages, we encapsulate the individual and communal mental and spiritual contemplative efforts of a people—each unique.”
a field of insect-i-cides
“beneath umbrellas of drooping purple petals, sticks with triangular heads hold curved handles, thin membranes stretch for tiny legs to back—stroke . . .”
