White Buffalo Woman’s Long Climb

Soaring down ice caved roads

steeped in Ponderosa pine,

howlin rains from monsoons past

pummel all along the divide.

And hidden past these drenched cavernous walls,

Zuni poets assemble at El Morro Peak,

each day unfolding into the next,

their collective breath emitting foggy energy thrusts,

their ears as one fixated on the red-tailed hawks soaring above.

It is a long climb vertical to reach these forgiving heights,

yet a solitary spirit traveler,

White Buffalo Woman,

again roams this high desert country,

breathing in one nostril at a time,

praying for more wisdom to shelter her along

with each resolute earth step.

Once years before,

an enchanted young girl was led here on horseback,

this Woman now fertile,

never again to be smitten by drought.

Meanwhile cloistered high up at El Morro Peak,

the poets lament over

too many horses without riders,

too many children without fathers,

and too much distance

for this solitary climber

to yearn for

or ever recall

a way back down.

Ramah, NM