Chrystos
From the book Not Vanishing by Chrystos
DANCE A GHOST
Thump I leap you     shake
down memories   hoarse   You die, are buried
your name closes the door
youreappearatnight  eyes wide  Iseetheuncaught
white man his shoes polished his hand gun
last pulse   the heart contracts   dreams our knees crumple
red neon flickers over your redman hands
black moccasins on white ground
curl unseen without frame
No bells on our feet   feather still   soles
worn through
I dance you
for Mani, murdered with his friend Marcus outside a Phoenix bar
Chrystos is a two-spirit activist poet artist amazing human being. Buy her books. Listen to her read another poem, Song for a Lakota Woman, at a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force event on February 5, 2011, where she said ” “Everything you need to learn can be found for free, in close observation of your relationships with the earth, with each other and with yourselves.”