Where Were You?

clay red and pumpkin orange
Where were you when the Wolf cried out your name?

cactus green and mesquite brown
The Eagle came searching and you weren't here.

fragrant fires of stone ovens
Even the Coyote came to see.

afternoon greys of impending rain
Where were you when the arroyo was rich with the life of the land
and the Sun lent its color to the corn?

I needed you then
With your strength and your courage
I needed your amber arms to encircle me
and ward off the biting cold of the Desert Night

I longed to see your obsidian hair
gleaming in the moonlight
as you approached me, your eyes flecked with gold
Your lean, strong body reflecting the starlight
as you moved toward me with the gentle foot of the Big Cat
to make us as one with the Great Spirit.

You gave me your seed
and then the spirits took you
Allowing you only to visit in my dreams
My blood pulses even now at the mention of your name
So many years later
So many, many years later
It seems like lifetimes ago that I
      first cried at your grave.

(Written in 1988)