<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">How the Milky Way Was Made</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">My river was once unseparated. Was Colorado. Red-</div><div class="">fast flood. Able to take</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">anything it could wet—in a wild rush—</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">all the way to Mexico.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Now it is shattered by fifteen dams</div><div class="">over one-thousand four-hundred and fifty miles,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">pipes and pumps filling</div><div class="">swimming pools and sprinklers</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">To save our fish, we lifted them from our skeletoned river beds,</div><div class="">loosed them in our heavens, set them aster —</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">‘Achii ‘ahan, Mojave salmon,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Colorado pikeminnow—</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Up there they glide, gilled with stars.</div><div class="">You see them now—</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">god-large, gold-green sides,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">moon-white belly and breast—</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">making their great speeded way across the darkest hours,</div><div class="">rippling the sapphired sky-water into a galaxy road.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The blurred wake they drag as they make their path</div><div class="">through the night sky is called</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">‘Achii ‘ahan nyuunye—</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">our words for *Milky Way* .</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Coyote too is up there, crouched in the moon,</div><div class="">after his failed attempt to leap it, fishing net wet</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">and empty, slung over his back—</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a prisoner blue and dreaming</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">of unzipping the salmon’s silked skins with his teeth.</div><div class="">O, the weakness of any mouth</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">as it gives itself away to the universe</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">of a sweet-milk body.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Just as my own mouth is dreamed to thirst</div><div class="">the long desire-ways, the hundred-thousand light year roads</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">of your throat and thighs.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Natalie Diaz</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><img apple-inline="yes" id="5C160E54-E17A-473C-B9E8-4AC2CEA4276C" src="cid:975B3E54-1DF1-4EAD-82E4-B299DE69A1EF" class=""></div></div></body></html>