Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Tuesday 23 February 2010

Ritual Business


.

File:Makah Indian Whalers 1910.jpg




At his bathing place
he prepares his twig bundles
a sentry box with spook paintings
his shrine contains
masks and skulls maybe
empty eyesockets
desiccated corpse

Once at Ahousat
a wolf walked into
somebody's whaling shrine

Wolves are pretty strong but
that wolf dropped dead
on the spot




File:Indian Whalers Stripping Their Prey at Neah Bay - 1910.jpg


File:The King of the Seas in the Hands of the Makahs - 1910.jpg





Makah Indian whalers, from Artwork of Seattle and Western Washington, W.D. Harney Photogravure Publisher, 1910: photo by Asahel Curtis, 2008
Makah Indian whalers stripping their prey at Neah Bay, from Artwork of Seattle and Western Washington, W.D. Harney Photogravure Publisher, 1910: photo by Asahel Curtis, 2008
The King of the Seas in the Hands of the Makahs,
from Artwork of Seattle and Western Washington, W.D. Harney Photogravure Publisher, 1910: photo by Asahel Curtis, 2008

No comments: