Maggie Mosher
Collective Conversations
Navajo Nation
third highest infection rate
fifth highest death rate
a fraction of the population
traced back
to the Church.
Locked down
road closures
chronic housing shortage.
The roar of freight trains
the only sounds left downtown
unsettling reminder of the past.
People in poverty
lack of electricity
no running water
travel, the only means for finding food.
Mask mandates with no mask materials.
Weekend curfews in attempts.
Poor access to healthcare
underfunded hospitals
overburdened doctors.
Riot Control Act
crisis of the highest order.
immediate action necessary.
Desperate attempt.
Dire times.
We’re getting the message out.
Diné, The People,
who once gathered as one
now Tt’AA’ hunkered down in hogans
knowing peace requires
people doing their part.
Calling ancestors, holy ones for protection
still depending on tradition
having faced closing off before.
Making homes for homeless in closed buildings
as birdsong echoes on red rocks.
Sheep, goats, horses, cats, and chickens
less viable land, yet, still their grazing
$500,000 given today by Ireland, who remembered
we became their brothers, sisters during famine.
The young sacrificing their well-being
making sure our customs stay and thrive.
Giving gratitude for masks, food, bottled water
heroes, keeping people alive.
Kids creating care packages for elders
states sending willing first responders
dedicated service for our safety
Indigenous leaders raising money.
Sending prayers with smoke to the Creator
healing, guidance, comfort, care, and grace
knowing heaven’s hearing and we’re living.
They seem to know much more than we’re hearing.
What they didn’t say is if we’d be okay.
—Submitted on
Editor’s Note: This poem appears to be related to an article that appeared on Reuters on April 14, 2020, which reads, in part, “Fearing for the lives of elders who carry the Navajo language and traditions, 19-year-old Matthew Duncan put up signs on the highway from Shiprock to Farmington urging Navajos to ‘KEEP YR Tt’AA’ AT HOME.’ Tt’AA’ means ‘butt’ in Navajo.
Maggie Mosher is the author of Because of Love, which she published herself in 2011 to raise funds for the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault. A recipient of a William E. Simon Fellowship for Noble Purpose, Mosher holds a MS in educational administration from Baker University in Baldwin City, Kans., and is pursuing a PhD in curriculum and instruction at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kans.
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