Picking bloodroot for deer lady
Slice their roots down the middle, peel open, and drop them
into boiling water. The dye is keen—ruby beads
dancing inside the pot. Calm the flame. Cut the birchbark.
Dip the earrings and, patience, wait for the dye to bleed.
Clutch a pinch of asemaa firmly in the left hand.
Uneasy, conjure the words to the benediction.
In a thicket of oak, lay down her gift, and intone —
hide me away in your womb, feed me stoneseed stem,
let the bloodline end with me.
into boiling water. The dye is keen—ruby beads
dancing inside the pot. Calm the flame. Cut the birchbark.
Dip the earrings and, patience, wait for the dye to bleed.
Clutch a pinch of asemaa firmly in the left hand.
Uneasy, conjure the words to the benediction.
In a thicket of oak, lay down her gift, and intone —
hide me away in your womb, feed me stoneseed stem,
let the bloodline end with me.
March 2025
Ana W. Migwan is an enrolled member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. She is from Marquette, MI, and this is her first publication.
Art: Claire Tang, Pushing Up Daisies. Oil on canvas.