Page 15 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015

Dark Matter: Women Witnessing - December, 2015 Issue #3 - EXTINCTION / DEVOTION

This is the life left to unfortunate women.

Infection a quick blessing.

Fingers of weeds

scuffle

point to sky

above them.

Blind days of men.

But the beautiful women are running

running

the banks of the black river

begging

the white men

are laughing.

York** weeps wheezes

hiding in the gray timber grass. Even the faces of trees

turn toward him.

The white men mistake believe

they are desirable.

*I used strike-outs on the manuscript in an attempt to say and not say the things

Sacagawea may have thought to say (or not say). I also used the strike- outs as a

device to get at the idea of cross-cultural interpretation and misinterpretation on the

page. I believe--although history tells a different story—that she spoke English and

understood nuanced language and the power of words better than any other in her

company. As an interpreter I think she would have struggled to grasp the right word or

words and would have cast them out as shimmering ghosts of the whole idea she

wished to convey. Words obscured but evident. As a traditional woman I think she saw

words as living things, not so easily dismissed or discarded.

**York was William Clark's slave on the expedition. He fully participated in the

expedition. I have often wondered what he thought of the whole thing. I believe for the

first time in his life he experienced power, a rare and certain power that went to his

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