The Creation Story

I'm not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.

It's not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.

I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.

Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.

The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood--

this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.

If these words can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars

Transfix us with love.

There are many versions of the creation story. In one Muscogee version, the ground opened up and the people came out.

The Wind Clan people were the first to emerge. Henry Marsey Harjo, my great-grandfather, was of the Wind Clan, my great-grandmother Katie Monahwee of the Tiger Clan. Because clan association comes with one's mother, this was my grandmother Naomi Harjo's clan. She passed this clan on to my father.

This creation story lives within me and is probably the most dynamic point in the structure of my family's DNA.