Honorable Mention, Eclectic Literary Forum, 1995; Alabama Literary Review in 1996.

DOUBLE-FACE WOMAN

by Dorothy Blackcrow Mack

                                                                        in memory of Ethel Blackcrow,
                                                Lakota quillworker

                   They warned me not to dream of her,
Anog-Ite' the Double-Face Woman,
filled us with terror as young girls,
but after my fifth miscarriage
I didn't care.
Let the other women bead
tiny lizards for their babies,
cut cottonwood twigs for childbirth.
I began to dream for Anog-Ite'.

                   I called and called, drank dark
teas, but when she drifted in,
I did not know her
on the right side,
moist lip, bright eye,
for she would not
turn her head.

                   At last I dreamed fierce
her bone side, reached
right through the black eyesocket
plunged my elbow deep
to pull out all those designs
pricked in the night sky--
quilled whorls and stars--
into my mind.

                   My arm did not wither
because I did not touch the bone
but I had known darkness
so I was gifted to work
with quills my hand
steady not pierced
by the black barb.

                   Now in a house
no man may enter
we boil dyes
steaming roots
bitter berry red
wormwood black
ochre yellow

                   we weave black barbs
& white shafts
our lips moist
swollen
from sucking quills flat
sucking medicine
pahin woskapi

                   we are fierce
we are childless
men do not bother us

                   we are sharp
                   we pierce
                   we prick

                   we know the designs