Zuni Mysticism and the Continental Divide
1
Near Zuni Reservation in New Mexico,
The Continental Divide divides nothing,
Just a sign nailed to the flat desert floor.
Arbitrary are these words and this demarcation.
This Continent can’t be divided by sign or civil war.
2
From here, the Zuni Reservation is invisible
To all but pilots and medicine men.
First, I see a long-armed cloud,
With its white sleeve rolled up,
Jab the mountains farther west,
3
Or is it just some Zuni sacred ritual?
Now, I can see a Zuni boy
next to the vision pit,
fire sending a trail of smoke into
the firmament for
a boy to climb.
Steve Heins