From this owl’s nest home, unsteady greasy oak
covered by cowhide long oblivious
to claws tough and curving as old tree roots
I breathe the night breeze, starry broken glass.
I am Chi Ko-ko-koho. My black-centered
unblinking owl eyes see past the dark
growl of this old bear den of a bar
through a stinging fog of unintended
blasphemy, tobacco’s tarry prayers
stuck and dusty on a hammered tin ceiling
to grieving spirits mirrored by my own.
I am Chi Ko-ko-koho, young among owls
as young among lush crimson blooms of death
is the embryonic seedling in my chest
the rooting zygote corkscrew in my chest
these days all but unseen, a pink seaspray
sunset on a thick white coffee cup.
My grieving spirit hardly notices,
though, in this old bear den of a bar.
My owl head turns clear around when I see him.
I am Chi Ko-ko-koho; I blink away
smoke and fog, my head swivels back
and he’s still there, the prefect. Still there
and he’s real, not some ghost back to grab my throat
with those heavy no-hands of his
or crack my brother’s homesick skinny bones
on cold concrete tattooed by miseries
of other Indian boys who crossed his path.
To the darkness of this bear den of a bar
he’s brought his own sad spirit for a drink.
I am Chi Ko-ko-koho, but who he sees
is Kwiiwizens, a boy bent and kneeling
beneath the prefect’s doubled leather strap
and Kwiiwizens I am. My belly feels
a tiny worm the color of the worm
writhe in laughter at my cowardice
as that now embodies ghost the old prefect
step-drags step-drags his dampened moccasins
to my end of the bar. Flowers weep rain
and embroidered beads in mourning for us all.
He asks me for a nickel for a beer.
With closed eyes Kwiiwizens waits for the strap
and I see them, the boy and the owl who are me.
Chi Ko-ko-koho dives from his grimy perch
to yank the apparition by the hair,
then flies him past the dark side of the moon
to drop him in the alley back behind
the dark growl of this old bear den of a bar.
Indizhinidaaz Kwiiwizens,
gaye indizhinikaaz Chi Ko-ko-koho.
Ni maajaa. Mi-iw. I leave him there.
I am Chi Ko-ko-koho. I leave him there
under stars of broken glass. I leave him there.