Raven’s Cry by Sara Wright

Fake coyote calls split
a moon cracked sky in two.
False ‘Indian’ hoots and drums
stunned sleeping birds –
Why do ‘whites’
insist upon using Indigenous ways,
to make a point?
Coyotes know.

Did they think that she was blind
or that her dreaming body,
a roiling belly
wouldn’t warn her?
Deception is a ruse
to twist and hide from truth
even when La Llarona’s river
becomes a mirror
shivering under
winter solstice flight.

At dawn a flaming
orange glow
bled and pooled;
a lake of fire,
shimmered
before piercing eyes –
(She sees better in low light)
A dark star,
 rose with thorns
exposing
 bruised and broken fruit.

 While Coyotes slept
Raven brought the Light.

Working notes: This poem came out of a winter solstice experience that was very painful for me because it involved a woman who was a close friend who chose not to share her version of the truth with me about what might have led up to this night beyond the usual defense – denial that any incident involving trickery occurred at all.

My experience was one that involved disrespect and betrayal but I am painfully aware that this is just my experience – my truth – and no more.

The real problem is not the experience – whatever it was – the intent remains veiled – but that two women could not sit down and talk it through. I was told that “words were my way” of working things through – not hers when I attempted to create a bridge to reconciliation through heart centered – conversation.

I don’t think the lack of solidarity between women has ever been so apparent to me.

Part of me is ready to give up on women. So many don’t seem to be able to grasp that we need each other more than we ever have.

Sara is a naturalist, ethologist ( a person who studies animals in their natural habitats) (former) Jungian Pattern Analyst, and a writer. She publishes her work regularly in a number of different venues and is presently living in Northern New Mexico.

Author: Sara Wright

I am a writer and naturalist who lives in a little log cabin by a brook with my two dogs and a ring necked dove named Lily B. I write a naturalist column for a local paper and also publish essays, poems and prose in a number of other publications. View all posts by Sara Wright