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Percheron Nambe Morning

By Allison Adelle Hedge Coke b. 1958 Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

—for Travis and Vaughan and all the St. Catherine’s Indian School kids

dust, leaves twirling

whirlpool

up off road

under wheels

undercarriage

automotive winds

turning, lifting

giving force to such

delicate particles

ends attached in former

position to branch

soft paper thin petal-

like reds and golds

much as the mane swings

blows back from higher

plane winds Percheron gold

mane that red Percheron

on the right

the north side

you’ve seen her

in the early morning

when it’s snowing she

raises her dignity

laughing at motorists

distressed by ice

and Pueblo patrol cars

we catch in peripheral

focus signal turn the

halogens off and on

on and off until

they code the signal

distress signal

approaching tribal police

traffic trap

commuting the

35 mph racket

through Nambe

Pojoaque turn 50

Tesuque Bingo/Pull-Tabs

long before the lodge

turned stone near Camel Rock

before the Congested Area in

approach to the

“City of the Oldest Catholic Church in North America”

we convey these

danger signs to

local yokels perhaps even

tourists if we’re in the mood

consideration

strange nation

neither of us belong

though we do stay

in close proximity to

these other Native peoples

very different than where we

come from still the same

only sometimes though

they know the patrol

man he’s their cousin

all of theirs

they know this whirl

these leaves rising now

before our heated grill

Chevy 4x ’91

they know the Percheron

she steals the scenery easily

with her laughter and turn

pitching hoof and tail

in mockery indispensable humor

she takes this morning

under gray the shade of nickel

to cloud the stress enabling

me to speak to you of

beauty

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, “Percheron Nambe Morning ” from Visit to Teepee Town. Copyright © 1999 by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke. Reprinted by permission of Coffee House Press. www.coffeehousepress.org

Source: Visit to Teepee Town (Coffee House Press, 1999)

Biography

Of Cherokee, Huron, Eastern Tsalagi, French Canadian, and European descent, poet and educator Allison Adelle Hedge Coke grew up in North Carolina, Texas, Canada, and the Great Plains region. She attended North Carolina State University and earned an AFAW in creative writing from the Institute for American Indian Arts and an MFA from Vermont College. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Year of the Rat (1996); the full-length . . .

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