Belly up

(for Omar Castaneda)

"I ask him if the sky is more blue and the sun more yellow because those are the colors we all become when we die." Sherman Alexie in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

We must lie white
in sun
hoping to become brown
like brothers, sisters
we steal streams,
birches, salmon from.
We must lie
without hope
hoping to cloak shame,
feel sorrow,
bronze our very souls.
Being white
we must lie.

Timothy Pilgrim