Sunrise

Sunrise

by Joy Harjo



Sunrise, as you enter the houses of everyone here,
find us.
We’ve been crashing for days,
or has it been years.
Find us, beneath the shadow of this yearning mountain,
crying here.
We have been sick with sour longings,
and the jangling of fears.
Our spirits rise up in the dark,
because they hear,
Doves in cottonwoods calling forth the sun.
We struggled with a monster and lost.
Our bodies were tossed in the pile of kill.
We rotted there.
We were ashamed and we told ourselves for a thousand years,
We didn’t deserve anything but this--
And one day, in relentless eternity,
our spirits discerned movement of prayers
Carried toward the sun.
And this morning we are able to stand with all the rest
And welcome you here.
We move with the lightness of being, and we will go
Where there’s a place for us.


Joy Harjo