Tyranny of Moths

By Gerald Vizenor b. 1934 Gerald Vizenor

feathery moths

flutter on the screen

unbearable

sounds of summer

oblivious tonight

that my reading light

is not my day

stout bodies

cut and bounce

near a crack

in the screen

and beat inside

a paper shade

sacraments

of a monumental

natural presence

we are drawn

forever

by the moths

to other lights

neighbors

down the road

Gerald Vizenor, “Tyranny of Moths” from Almost Ashore. Copyright © 2006 by Gerald Vizenor. Reprinted by permission of Salt Publishing.

Source: Almost Ashore (Salt Publishing, 2006)

Biography

Gerald Vizenor is of Anishinabe heritage and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. Vizenor was born in Minnesota, but before he turned two years old his father was murdered. He was subsequently raised by his Swedish American mother, Anishinabe grandmother, and extended family in Minneapolis and on the White Earth Reservation.

The author of more than 20 books of nonfiction, fiction, and . . .

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