A hushed whisper hangs in the air;

ancient rock trembles to life as if to answer.
Soft is the spirit, and
its traces are in the tissue of time.
     Here before, here before, hands touch —

           though a millennium apart.

The planet is speaking to us mysteriously
of ourselves, insisting from out of
the mushroom cloud that guards our
darkness with a hellish light,
etching deep the vivid shouting rock,
dancing to life by the cursed fire.

The whisper hangs in the air:
"What were we like?"
Vivid ghosts protrude into the sunlight
with a silent answer
for the dumb heart's knowing:

Out here, among these silent rocks —
vast, timeless, fervent desolation of New Mexico —
the land resonates with the static
power of an ancient electricity from
thousands and thousands of many moons ago —
remember remember remember...

Pecked, scribed, painted, deep into the
brain, heart and soul of all there is,
A message
An answer — A legacy left by the old ones,
left in nature.

They: they were us. We are one —
We are the earth

We are not strangers out here
Out here
we are home.

Cactus bird sings the painted night into
dawn sings cactus into day sings lizard into
dreaming, seeing far into other dimensions —
dreaming bright old lizard dreams
in the crevice under the cactus roots
while Grandfather Cactus sings the sun song.
White spirit lizard, little cactus man,
dreams of earth,
dreams us into being —
quite a job,
that's why he spends all his time on it.

Beneath cactus roots,
an ancient skull laughs heavenward,
enjoying between-words conversing for
thousands of years.
Grandfather of this continent
Grandmother of this continent
and the earth
know a secret
they share it with the morning star
while scorpions scatter into the heat of day.

Guided many miles by canoe,
having paid a thousand dollars for
the tour, and come some miles on foot,
she came at last, out in the heat,
face to face with the image
on the
rock
and something deep within her stirred
and with her car keys for a dagger
she struck and gashed and stabbed
and she
sunk down on her knees and wept
"Why oh why?"

The scratch on the rock bleeds a tear of
forgiveness from the corner of a lizard's eye
that goes unseen.

Cactus sings:

We che ya ya ya
We sho ne ye ye yo

We che ya ya ya
We sho ne ye ye yo

We che ya ya ya
We sho ne ye ye yo

We che ya ya ya
We sho ne ye hey a na
hey hey
yo way

Lizard speaks a translation to the form of God that is an
ant to tell to the schoolteacher:

A h'sh d-a
se ne me gon so me
If you understand what is being given to you,
then the way will open up for you.
You will be shown what you can see.
Te kash dela
Wakash wakan
The vision of the Eagle will be yours
The strength of the Bear will be yours.

But she stepped on the ant.

Crawdad with long grey hairs moves
slowly, trapped in troubled water,
scented of old tires
while leaves above quake in twilight
sun,
light rain falling on poisoned leaves.

Medicine man breathes air around a
hot coal he holds in his teeth into
chakra points on a man's back, sucks
poison from the body lying prone
before the medicine fire through a
tube, and struggles with the poison,
now in him —
knowing how love and courage are the same —
and vomits it from his own system —
knowing how love and courage are the same —
is his power.

A glimmering, maybe a knowing like
soft, red warm glowing of coals in a
late night campfire
as you drowse
strengthens and fades
as you drowse
strengthens and fades
as you drowse

In the darkness, fine, fine filaments
stretch into a profound distance too
great to measure, so subtle as to be
destroyed by doubt.
Precious, more rare than gold —

heartstrings: woven between our
hearts by acts of love.

Somewhere,
a web of life is a great tree of life
which is because we are —

And the tree of life has been poisoned —
spirit pollution.

Ancient, ancient old rocks and a
seashore before there was life on earth:

A time and place accessible by
expressing love
with everything we are, every fiber of our being,
maybe once in our lives.

Static electricity builds with soft glows,
fluorescing here and there
and the wind rises until

A lightning flash explodes and life
starts on earth all over again,
back on that dead, suspended dust
speck in the black vacuum of
nothingness.

Spirits ride comets in outer space
another life as a crystal jellyfish on a
turquoise planet for about five hundred
thousand vorsec quotients —
who knows
how long that is?

One would learn patience, living out such a
sentence, meted out for not
having expressed love courageously enough
to save the tree of life,
to add strength
to the tree of life.

Deep in a kiva, ancient drums echo into
modern ears
awaken and stir the ancient, innermost soul

which hears the earth
which hears the earth
which hears the earth
which hears the earth

A h'sh - d'a
A h'sh - d'a
A h'sh - d'a
se ne me gon so me
If you understand what is being given to you,
the way will open up for you.
You will be shown
what you can see.
Te kash dela
Wakash wakan
The vision of the Eagle will be yours
The strength of the Bear will be yours.

We che ya ya ya
We sho ne ye ye yo
We che ya ya ya
We sho ne ye ye yo
We che ya ya ya
We sho ne ye ye yo hey a na
hey hey
yo way

Medicine man of native, natural America
hear me now

I feel the poison
like a wounded grizzly bear

lost in a forest of agony and fury
grieving and raging
Ripping the bark from trees
Roaring in Rage

Pejuta wichasa
pejuta wacan
medicine man

The poison that is now in you
You got from us:

We are the human race
We are the earth
and the earth is in trouble
We feel it in our poisons.

Our hope lies in
red white brown black and yellow
bands on an arrow shaft turned into a peace pipe
bands inseparable on the pipe of all people.

We must all be medicine men and medicine women:
We will heal each other
through our strength and the courage of our love
Wakash wakan
We will heal our mother earth through our vision
Te kash dela

Cactus sings of mother earth's healing love,
brings this song to mankind.

Cactus sings:

M'ckm'a ch'a p'wa
We cho ne che
Hey mia ni so
Hey wacha kiya
Hey a no yo yo

Wakan tanka ya ya
Wu she mada yo yo yo

Waniki-ay ya ya
O shima di yo yo yo
O shima di yo yo yo
Waniki-ay ya ya
O shima di yo yo yo
O shima di yo hey a na
hey hey
yo way

Aho mitake oyasin
It is finished.