for Jaiden Peter Morgan
A good poem
is summer
my nephew said
mirage rising
from corn fields
midday
pollen on our tongues
each syllable
flecked with sunbeams
and names not said
shiye’ you should know
the voice isn’t ours alone
but a dwelling space
a hooghan’s
cool inner darkness
before ceremony
it is you
who will heal
these wounds
a good poem
is song
I said
so let there be mountains
singing in all directions
let there be laughter
uninterrupted and innocent
shiye’ what joy you are
naahoniiłt’ąh
nahałtin
náhoolt’ąh
Copyright © 2021 by Manny Loley. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 1, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.