Déélgééd, the Horned Monster

Insist on reaching, into thorns to blow

off ants, or wind your fingers around webs,

beads of raindrops run together in slow

succession, an edging down anchor threads:

   would you believe me if I told you: night

   comes piercing in like antelope horn, right

in and out the midsection, bearing all

but head. She left you— a nearby gully

swaddled you with yucca leaves and petal.

Baby’s breath, as they sometimes call it, ugly

   with fly egg sacs is sometimes used to line

   diapers: it masks the smell of sin & urine.

Tacey M. Atsitty, Diné (Navajo), is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta'neeszahnii (Tangle People). She was born in Logan, UT, grew up in Kirtland, NM but is originally from Cove, AZ. She is a recipient of the Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, the Corson-Browning Poetry Prize, Morning Star Creative Writing Award, and the Philip Freund Prize. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018).  

We welcome reader letters.Email High Country News at [email protected] or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.

• Poetry
• Arts & Culture