Sandpainting

Irene Nakai 
Tó´ahaní

Morning:
  Let us go out into the desert, troubled friend, to
     gather red sand, black earth, white sand, blue 
        clay.

Noon:
  Let us climb a rippling sand dune,
     everchanging in the celestial breezes, 
                                      grain 
                                        by
                                      grain.
                                      
Seat ourselves in the twilight;
Paint your troubles in the sand.
Red sand, words of anger that cut.
Black earth, screaming demons, rumbling,
          mumbling confusion.
White sand, blank walls, blank faces, titled thick
    books with blank pages.
Blue clay, blue, sticky blue, bogging blues.
Night wind blows,
Above the wind, do you hear someone knocking?
   "Open the door, it is the door of the Mountain."
Child, turn around, your painting has blown - away and
  it is Dawn!
Irene Nakai. "Sandpainting" printed by permission of the author. Copyright ©1980 by Irene Nakai.

As printed in Larry Evers, ed. The South Corner of Time. Tucson, Ariz.: The University of Arizona Press, ©1980, p. 50.