Tacey M. Atsitty

one poem

Pollenback

at the stoplight
my son whispers

bees, bees
over lavender 

stems, lean 
into sand waves

they vocal or 
dance fly

at the petal
lip, brush against

any fertile up-
standing, sway

with sundown
clouds— 

earlier today 
we spread ash

across our faces
arms & legs

at the treeline
with smoke

then the light
changes—

look, son
it’s time

for sky, earth-
side to sleep

for flowers
to lie still

atop the cold
atop the cold

please don’t
go, lift

arms, drag
tongue paper 

sheets of pollen 
grain, these days

bursts of prayer
of falling rays

now, wingflap 
for bursts of air

I don’t even look
to his forewings

I mean, I 
no longer

see his eyes,
just his back

turning away
to churn in pollen—

Tacey M. Atsitty, Diné (Navajo), is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta'neeszahnii (Tangle People). She is a recipient of the Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, the Corson-Browning Poetry Prize, Morning Star Creative Writing Award, and the Philip Freund Prize. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, Kenyon Review Online, Prairie Schooner, Crazyhorse, New Poets of Native Nations, and other publications. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018).