How to make a penny dress

for Rochelle

Start with story – thirty-eight + two 
Hung before the rising sun

Be precise.

Learn every breath of it, tell it one hundred times.

Hold the trauma of four, five generations, 

Let it build gravity in your belly.

Daily  

Pray to your ancestors, 

Thank them for the legacy that is you.

Grow indifferent to racism and unkindness.

Dance. Sing. Dance. Sing. Dance. Sing. Dance.

Pray with your feet to find

Inspiration for the dress: 

       how it comes together

       how the body holds it 

The healing that lives among the threads.

Here is a story that needs a horse to ride.

The dress is the horse; the dancer, the rider.

Be patient for the dream that brings the dress to you.

Remember what your grandfather said.

Ride at dawn, ride at twilight. 

Ride at dawn, ride at twilight. 

Now gather two black Pendleton blankets –

Red and yellow stripes along the edge.

Gather two hundred and eighty pennies, a hank of red glass beads.

Cut into equal pieces a coil of waxed cord.

Gather family, share deer stew at dusk on the Snow Moon.

Pray hard over that cup of coffee and cigarette.

Exhale

Spread out the Pendleton blankets, 

Spread them with pennies, heads up.

Sit with hammer and nail punch. 
A hole through each Lincoln head.

Thread the wax cord pieces – one penny, three red beads. 

Again and again and again and again.

Glass and copper tears.

A full bowl in a west window.

Ride at dawn, ride at twilight. 
Ride at dawn, ride at twilight. 

Take a moment, take a day 

Pray beside a frozen river.

Share the story 

With seven more,

The thirty-eight + two
Hung before the rising sun.

You'll want
Sharp shears to cut the black pieces: 

front body, back body, right sleeve, left.

Pray hard over that cup of coffee and cigarette.

Exhale

Take your time 

The pieces come together 

on an old machine, in a room off the kitchen.

You shovel snow, feed the fire, feed the horses.

Coffee and cigarette.

Smooth the seams.

Gather a lap full, red and copper tears, 

Stitch them on:

       the yoke across the back – ten tear drops, four rows.

       the right shoulder, the left – ten tear drops, four rows.

       the right bodice, the left – ten tear drops, four rows.

       ring the waist – ten tear drops, four rows.

       ring the hemline – ten tear drops, four rows.

Thirty-eight + two swing in seven directions.

Pray hard over that cup of coffee and cigarette

Exhale

Here is a new dress, new world
Hung before the rising sun.

Gift for your eldest daughter – Otehika.

Maybe that is you.

The story's in the dress in the dance,
A history, you bring to life.
Medicine for the people.

Light another cigarette, 

Exhale.