Voice Mail - Norla Chee

La très belle série "Dark Winds", dont je vous ai parlé, il y a quelques semaines, m'a incitée à rechercher des voix Navajos....

Norla Chee

Norla Chee is born to the Turtle Clan of the Oneida Iroquois and born for the Kin’ya’aanii Clan of the Navajo. She lives on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico where she writes, quilts, and takes care of her father. Her first book is Cedar Smoke on Abalone Mountain (University of California, American Indian Studies Center, 2001). She has completed her second manuscript, “Grey Mist Over White Shell Mountain,” which has yet to find a publisher.

miss you calling me at work
leaving stupid jokes on my phone

like the one about the Arapaho, the Navajo,
and the New York ho’

miss you texting me cartoon stickers and
voicemails in our native Diné

your own private rebellion
against the civilized world

that thought they could erase us
if we had no language to tell us who we are

you taught me the prayers to Sun God
saying the sun will always rise

until it didn’t
leaving a black hole

deep in my bones
the only way back

a fury of erupting lava

all that’s left is a last unsaid voicemail
empty static

and grief too great
to fit into a rhyme scheme

Source: Poetry (March 2025)

Pour écouter Norla Chee réciter son poème, c'est par ici. et pour en savoir plus sur les peintures rituelles navajos, c'est par là.