Sacagawea

 Where is West? 

A’akkuse
Where is West

When was it that I lost the West?

The missouri river, you flow southeast 

That's when I started to lose the West 

My map got wet, I gripped on it as

The river took me by my ankles, 

and dragged me 

Further east,

further south

The river held me, I am not water, 

I am sky

And then he came

The ink bled, ineligible now 

My eyes pour 

my vision never waivers 

The faded print 

From the sky, I see our place

A bird’s eye 

 

A collection,

One of sky, one of water

My trade, the blemishes and the bruises 

My skin darkens, not by the sun 

But by the same hand 

That paints your face

the paper thins, fragile now

You take me

And with each hand print

I hear a tear 

I see shreds

nothing but fibers 

My vision blurs 

Before I close my eyes, 

What was the map, 

Was all I saw

As he left another mark within me 

My eyes are dull and empty

Where, is West?

Where is West II

In my hands, I can not see the curves of the rocks 

My fingernails hold no traces of dirt 

My jaw aches and is shut tight 

My legs and feet swollen 

I see where I lay 

I see the border of the floor, where it meets the walls 

I see the vertical columns of the logs in the wall

higher

I want to see the peaks of the trees

I want to see the wrinkles of a’ni ki, ana 

How it rises from dirt into a mighty figure 

Standing proud, standing tall 

Higher 

I want to see the moon shining down

glistening 

Like ripples on a still lake 

Leaving quiet footsteps

Higher 

how the sun lovingly hugs the horizon 

As it falls down into the Earth 

And the world hums to slumber 

But I am stuck on the ground 

I crawl into the corner of my mind 

And I can not find it 

The shapes of the Earth somewhere

I can not feel Her breath 

I can not hear the hum of Her heart 

I feel a throbbing in my core, 

I trace my hand on the walls of my womb,

An extension of me 

It is loose and sore 
And changes day by day

West

The water is still before it streams 

The earth is solid, before it cracks 

The hearth is cold, before it ignites 

The wind is quiet, before it flies 

The land searches its end 

And you find a new beginning 

A beginning of water 

My body is tranquil

My breath is paused 

Until I reach the edge of the land

The West water, is vast 

It runs endlessly, and has no direction 

The water reflects the blue of the sky 

And it seems as though you are floating 

You are soaring in an endless blue 

You are West