Right Justly
By Diane Glancy
When he movd into the house
he wanted us to stomp & pray
out the evil spirits
just in case they’d be there.
How cld they
when a medicine woman lived on the place
& left it to the church when she went to happier
grounds?
But a truck hauling brush
turnd on the road
& he jumped up screaming—
deer prowler
at the antlered beast.
We danced out the spirits
he carried on the place.
How now pow wow
he jumps in the sow-yard with the bow-
wow cow.
We passed the spirits to chickens
to peck their legs—
Eeeeevil spirits pock-marked
as the dartboard.
W/ marbles shooting rabbit eyes
we stompd wild fires he once built in his head,
still haunted him
as though evil spirits could open
a medicine woman’s door,
climb in her unpainted windows,
crawl through yellowed wallpaper armoured w/
prayer-chants.
We whooped & hawed until he sd nuf.
The house
barricaded from deer prowlers
from under his headband.
Copyright Credit: “Right Justly” from On Age in a Dreamy by Diane Glancy (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1986). Copyright © Diane Glancy. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. www.milkweed.org.
Source: One Age in a Dream (Milkweed Editions, 1986)