TERESA MARIE METCALFE

Spirit Guide For My Mother

My mother says that she is an Indian
She tells people this
          and some of them even believe her
But I have never seen an Indian
          with red hair and green eyes
          nor one whose skin is fair and freckled

Indians take their corn
shucks out into the sun
and they wash their hair at midnight
          under the moon

Like my mother,
They sit underneath the shadows of owls
                                           -waiting

I have seen her shuck her corn beneath the sun
And I have watched her wash the moon
          and brush her hair in the night
And I can still hear her heart beat
          like a drum
My mother may very well be an Indian