#50 YA’AT’EH FROM THE 89TH INTER-TRIBAL CEREMONIAL by Karin Fank

Unpacked, we settle
on the balcony of room 241
at the Red Rock Inn
in Gallup, NM.
From all compass points
compressed sand rises
out of loose sand,
desiccated and imbued
with hues from salmon
to maroon to beige.
Brave juniper and salt bush cling
to crevasses and jagged outcrops
etched by sudden angry water.
Tumbled rock and broken boulders
speak of irritable fits of wind.
But to the east stand
remnants of Jurassic dunes
where fires flash
and drums tattoo. There
we refugees from lands
where water vapor reigns
will ease into the dry
serenity of Red Rock park.

—

Karin L. Fank resides in Missouri but visits New Mexico every year for the Inter-tribal Ceremonial. His poems have been published in the Rockhurst Review, the I-70 Review, the Mid-America Poetry Review, the Coal City Review, the Little Balkans Review, and KC Voices, and have won several prizes.

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