Painting by Anita Endrezze
True Myth
Tell a child she is composed of parts
(her Ojibway quarters, her half-German heart)
she'll find the existence of harpies easy
to swallow. Storybook children never come close
to her mix, but manticores make great uncles,
Sphinx a cousin she'll allow, centaurs better to love
than boys -- the horse part, at least she can ride.
With a bestiary for a family album she's proud.
Her heap of blankets, her garbage grin, prove
She's descended of bears, her totem, it's true.
And that German witch with the candy roof,
that was her ancestor too. If swans can rain
white rape from heaven, then what is a girl to do?
Believe her Indian eyes, her sly French smile,
Her breast with its veins skim milk blue --
She is the myth that is true.
Heid Erdrich
from Fishing for Myth
No comments:
Post a Comment