Shiwanna (1)
From their guard posts in the hills
around Shiwanna, the Twins
raise such a clamor
that the brotherhood of holy warriors,
gathering in haste, divides &
divides. Factions of three, two,
one angry voice raised against the others.
The Ahayuta–immortal teens–are always
for the extreme: the lightning strike,
the tornado, the hundred-year flood.
Their rancid breath boils in their throats,
offspring as they are of sun & foam.
But the Uwannami, the longbeards,
breathe from the bottomless ocean.
Their tobacco reed scrawls a complex
message across the sky.
From every town the rain priests gather
in their grand kiva, four walls in
from the sun. Tenatsali, six-hued
flower, herb with seven faces,
how have you passed your days?
The Word Priest inhales from the blossoms
as if they were open palms. We seek
direction. And Tenatsali in turn
calls for Datura:
Take a boy with unblemished skin,
between his first & second initiations.
Guide him to the edge of death.
(To be continued)
_________
I’ll try and keep notes to a minimum for this section; over-explication could suck the life out of it, I think.
the Twins: Hero twins – usually male, occasionally female – are a feature of many native mythologies of the Americas.
holy warriors: In the ethnographic literature on Zuni, these are usually referred to as Priests of the Bow, which is awkward in part because it might not be immediately obvious which sort of bow is meant.
Tenatsali: The precise identification of this herb is a closely guarded secret. But its use as a kind of doorway or ambassador is reflected in the fact that the very first American anthropologist to live among the Zuni in the late 19th century, Frank Cushing, was nicknamed “Tenatsali,” and that is the name by which he is still fondly remembered in Zuni oral history.
Datura: The scientific name of this highly poisonous, psychotropic plant seems somehow more fitting than the common English name, jimsonweed.
OTHER POSTS IN THE SERIES
- Cibola 1
- Cibola 2
- Cibola 3
- Cibola 4
- Cibola 5
- Cibola 6
- Cibola 7
- Cibola 8
- Cibola 9
- Cibola 10
- Cibola 11
- Cibola 12
- Cibola 13
- Cibola 14
- Cibola 15
- Cibola 16
- Cibola 17
- Cibola 18
- Cibola 19
- Cibola 20
- Cibola 21
- Cibola 22
- Cibola 23
- Cibola 24
- Cibola 25
- Cibola 26
- Cibola 27
- Cibola 28
- Cibola 29
- Cibola 30
- Cibola 31
- Cibola 32
- Cibola 33
- Cibola 34
- Cibola 36
- Cibola 37
- Cibola 38
- Cibola 35
- Cibola 40
- Cibola 41
- Cibola 42
- Cibola 43
- Cibola 44
- Cibola 45
- Cibola 46
- Cibola 47
- Cibola 48
- Cibola 49
- Cibola 50
- Cibola 51
- Cibola 52
- Cibola 53
- Cibola 54
- Cibola 55
- Cibola 56
- Cibola 57
- Cibola 58
- Cibola 59
- Cibola 60
- Cibola 61
- Cibola 62
- Cibola 63
- Cibola 64
- Cibola 65
- Cibola 66
- Cibola 67
- Cibola 68
- Cibola 69
- Cibola 70
- Cibola 71
- Cibola 72
- Cibola 73
- Cibola 74
- Cibola 75
- Cibola 76