Kobe T. Natachu

K’ettsana

In search of future, I wandered unfamiliar territory
Hoping for less hostile circumstances
Where moisture is not saturated in ma:k’osa drying me further
Hoarding what gives me life in fear it would not return

Unable to establish stable footing I am easily unrooted
Taken from lands meant to support my growth
Streams of sediment flow from my exposed bare roots
The only home I have known is unable to give life
Withering in my displacement, unfamiliar where I would fall
Pondering a hereafter where I am no longer in existence
Where my body become the anchor for another

I succumb to these thoughts as a new sensation envelopes me
Vital breath floods my form reawakening my desire for future
K’yawe rains down filling my parched veins, dormant roots now rouse
Soft earth unlike what we’ve seen welcomes us
Free to expand and collect life, our search is met
My root system now able to sprout life, a genesis begins
New patterns reveal themselves within hom daya:we
I greet them timidly, unaware of their presence until now
Strands of jet cascade from me creating waterfalls of night
Spines meant to protect soften, unveiling subtle buds
In bloom, my beauty has surfaced
Once on the peripherals of life, I become center again
I am the perennial unaware of their ability to bloom under the right conditions
Sunlight within sustaining growth in times of darkness
The emergence of dakkya:we accompany the answering of prayers
Soil damp with blessings and nutrients to sustain
Droplets of dew collect on my petals as nectar pours from me
A sweetness I have learned to give
My own creation to remind those what is possible
Ho’ Kettsana… ho’ kettsana… ho’ kettsana...
A:wisk ho’ e:mokkya
(I’m glad I stayed)

U’kwin habo:li

Before you moved on to the next world I searched for yucca
Scanned open fields in hopes they’d present themselves to me
Spines made into cord, edible fruit and flower, roots to wash away day
Gifts given away to their children

Even then dom deya:we refused to gray
Forehead bursting with dark new growth soft to touch
A lifetime of perms, a staple for Pueblo women
I never did see your natural hair

Offer kya’we:a:we’ before breaking earth
Deep their roots grow, sipping waters from decades prior
Deliver them into the fifth world greeting yaddokya datchu
Gather what is needed for her final wash, elah’kwa

Fill sa’le with water, shred fibers between fingertips, release their treasure
Rinse away mak’osa collected in these hands
Saponin lather removes all that ails one’s tse’ma’kwe
Pray sorrow dissipates into this cleansing milk

Stray hairs caught on rings refusing to leave these hands
Soap drips into eyes yet there are no tears with yucca
Dry away remnants with frayed towels that once cradled me
I will remember you during this ceremony

Kobe T. Natachu is a Łhamana Trans Nonbinary poet, artist, and activist with their peoples being Shiwi (Zuni), Diné (Navajo), and Katishtya (San Felipe). They grew up on their traditional homelands in what is currently known as New Mexico and are now based on the lands of the Ampinefu or Mary’s River Band of Kalapuya where they are a graduate student at Oregon State University in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.

ISSN 2472-338X
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