Michael E. Strosahl

Tipton Poetry Journal – Winter 2021

Canyon de Chelly

Michael E. Strosahl

Inspired by the Mural Project photos by Ansel Adams and the story of the Navajo Nation who lives there This is our home, where the river you call Colorado carved at the red rock, waters turned to blood with those lost to the Long Walk, when your government burned down our hogans, destroying our crops and peaches, seizing our livestock to move us where they thought we should be, overcrowded and amongst our enemies at the Bosque Rodondo, drinking from the Pecos unsettling the spirits of the belly of nearly all the Dine’. This was not our home, as our people walked weak, fought daily with the Mescalero and starved for the food your governors promised until their admitted failure, when we were released to go back, reclaiming the canyon and the waters that birthed us, blue, green, brown and red. This is our home.

Michael E. Strosahl is a midwestern river-born poet, originally from Moline, Illinois, now living in Jefferson City, Missouri. Besides several appearances in the Tipton Poetry Journal, Maik’s work has appeared in Flying Island, Bards Against Hunger projects, on buses, in museums and online at indianavoicejournal, poetrysuperhighway and projectagentorange. Maik also has a weekly poetry column at the online blog Moristotle & Company.