For the common sunflowers along the Upper Fruitland, NM ditch
How do I write
a poem about resilience—
I want to talk more about the water,
about streams and lakes.
Sun rays that never sit still.
I imagine turquoise clusters,
matched with bright magenta masaní scarves
tied around our wrists, clasped
cloth in our mouths. Wait / ałtsé’ —watch, as wild flora
and pollen twine along our skin
like wild horse hairs.
How do I write a poem about resilience—
how many times will I be asked to write a poem,
a song, a prayer, a sermon,
a land acknowledgment, an obituary—
about resilience?
Instead, I want to talk about the slender riverbanks,
the farmland ditches that masaní told shí dóó shícuzzins
not to jump in, because ‘waterdogs,’ imaginary beasts,
might drag us under.
I want to talk about childhood dirt banks
covered in wild sunflowers.
Taller than my seventh-grade self, arcing like the rez cats that
come and go, always coming and going.
Shimá used to drive us down the ol’ back roads,
I’d slouch in my seat and stick my feet
out of the window—squealing like a toddler
every time a sunflower touched my toes.
In the rearview mirror,
I watched their sturdy stems spring back up—
arching as if they held the sun.
How many times will I be asked to write a poem
about resilience?
The wind spreads their seeds, their roots become
clenched veins, tethering.
I want to walk more in beauty, in memories
and blossoms that kiss my skin.
And I wondered if that dream counts as
resilience.
Danielle Shandiin Emerson is a Diné writer from Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Nation. Her clans are Tłaashchi’i (Red Cheek People Clan), born for Ta’neezaahníí (Tangled People Clan). Her maternal grandfather is Ashííhí (Salt People Clan) and her paternal grandfather is Táchii’nii (Red Running into the Water People Clan). She has a B.A. in Education Studies and a B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University. She has received fellowships from GrubStreet, Lambda Literary, The Diné Artisan + Author Capacity Building Institute, Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Tin House, The Highlight Foundation, and Monson Arts. She has work published from swamp pink, Poets.org, Yellow Medicine Review, Poetry Magazine, Thin Air Magazine, The Chapter House Journal, Poetry Northwest, and others. Her writing centers healing, kinship, language-learning, and Diné narratives. She is an incoming MFA Fiction graduate student at Vanderbilt University.