Power

One of my New Year's resolutions was to blog or journal daily. Not all journals are fit for blogging, and some of my blogs aren't fit for blogging, either! And now it's January 8th.

Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts for my brother. He's about to be released, miraculously with no lasting physical repercussions for his attempt. He's getting the help he needs, and he now knows the power of prayers, and that many people care about him.

This poem appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Then I realized after a few days that it was given to me to illuminate the image of "The Devil", or Extreme Earthiness and Attachment to Earthiness.
Here it is:

DESIRE'S DOG

I was desire's dog.
I ate when I was fed. I shit where I was told.
I knew how to sit, stand and roll over on command.
When I was petted, I was made whole.
Even when I dreamed, I dreamed a chain around my neck.
I lay at the feet of desire for years.
I died. Rats dug up my bones.
What was left disintegrated by rain and wind.
Still I followed desire, to the end.
Desire is a bone with traces of fat.
It's the wag smell of a bitch in heat.
It's that pinched flower at the end of a beat.
It's a stick thrown into a chase of rabbits.
I followed it out flat, to the other side of me.
I stood up. I took a breath.
I heard my name. It came from within.
I went down to the water.
I put on new clothes.
I walked free.
Then I heard this song, calling me.
It was a woman in a red dress,
It was a man with a gun in his hand.
It was a table filled with fruit and flowers.
It was a person of fire, another of stone.
It was the beginning. It was the end.

c Joy Harjo Honolulu, HI 1-3-2009