Through the Smoke Hole

For Don Allen

I

There is another world above this one; or outside of this one;

the way to it is thru the smoke of this one, & the hole that

smoke goes through. The ladder is the way through the smoke

hole; the ladder holds up, some say, the world above; it might

have been a tree or pole; I think it is merely a way.

Fire is at the foot of the ladder. The fire is in the center. The

walls are round. There is also another world below or inside

this one. The way there is down thru smoke. It is not necessary

to think of a series.

Raven and Magpie do not need the ladder. They fly thru the

smoke holes shrieking and stealing. Coyote falls thru; we

recognize him only as a clumsy relative, a father in old clothes

we don't wish to see with our friends.

It is possible to cultivate the fields of our own world without

much thought for the others. When men emerge from below

we see them as the masked dancers of our magic dreams. When

men disappear down, we see them as plain men going some-

where else. When men disappear up we see them as great

heroes shining through the smoke. When men come back

from above they fall thru and tumble; we don't really know

them; Coyote, as mentioned before.

u

Out ofthe kiva come

masked dancers or

plain men.

plain men go into the ground.

out there out side all the chores

wood and water, dirt

wind, the view across the flat,

here, in the round

no corners

head is full of magic figures-

woman your secrets arent my secrets

what I cant say I wont

walk round

put my hand flat down.

you in the round too.

gourd vine blossom.

walls and houses drawn up

from the same soft soil.

thirty million years gone

drifting sand.

cool rooms pink stone

worn down fort floor, slat sighting

heat shine on jumna river

dry wash, truck tracks in the riverbed

coild sand pinyon.

seabottom

riverbank

sand dunes

the floor of a sea once again.

human fertilizer,

underground water tunnels,

skinny dirt gods,

grandmother berries,

out

through the smoke hole.

(for childhood and youth are vanity

a Permian reef of algae,

out through the smoke hole

swallowd sand

salt mud

swum bodies, flap

to the limestone blanket-

lizzard tongue, lizzard tongue

wha, wha, wha, flying

in and out thru the smoke hole

plain men

come out of the ground.