After Viewing the Holocaust Museum\u2019s Room of Shoes
\nand a Gallery of Plains\u2019 Indian Moccasins: Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The portrait is clear;
\none is art the other
\nevidence. One is artifact
\nthe other atrocity.
\nEach is interned
\nbehind glass,
\nwith diagrams
\nand panels,
\na testament to miles
\nwalked. Both
\nare worn,
\neach a pair,
\none is cobbled
\none is beaded.<\/p>\n
At my tour\u2019s end
\ncan I buy a key-chain shoe?
\nWill I be assigned
\nthe ID card
\nof one of the perished
\nat Wounded Knee?<\/p>\n
The moccasins
\nare beautiful. Seed pearls
\nwoven intricate as lace.
\nWe don\u2019t mourn
\nthe elegant doe skins,
\nwe admire the handicraft.
\nWe don\u2019t ask from whose soles
\ndo these relics come from?
\nWe don\u2019t look for signs of resistance,
\nor evidence of blood.<\/p>\n
Nor do we wonder
\nif he was old
\nand passed in his sleep,
\nor if this child
\ntraded for a stick of candy
\nor a pinch of dried meat.
\nWe do not make assumptions
\nof original ownership at all.<\/p>\n
Their deaths were not curated,
\nnot part of an installation. We
\ndon\u2019t absorb their violent
\nor harrowing ends under soft
\nlights or dramatic shadows.<\/p>\n
We look right
\nthrough them,
\nmore invisible
\nthan the sighs
\nof ghosts.
\nAnd then we move
\non to the next
\nviewing,<\/p>\n
and the next,<\/p>\n
and the next,<\/p>\n
to another
\ncollector\u2019s trophy
\nlying
\nbeneath a
\nveil of glass.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“After Viewing the Holocaust Museum\u2019s Room of Shoes\u00a0and a Gallery of Plains\u2019 Indian Moccasins: Washington, D.C.” previously appeared in Go to the Ruined Place: <\/strong>Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights<\/em>\u00a0and New Poets of the American West.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tiffany Midge is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux, and a recent poetry MFA graduate from the University of Idaho. Her previous collection of poetry Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of Mixed-up Halfbreed <\/a><\/em>won the Native Writers of the Americas First Book Award for poetry and was published by Greenfield Review Press in 1996. The chapbook, Guiding the Stars to their Campfire, Driving the Salmon to their Beds<\/a><\/em> was published by Gazoobi Tales in \u201905. She has published poetry and prose in, Growing Up Ethnic in America, <\/em>Viking\/Penguin; Reinventing the Enemy\u2019s Language,<\/em> W.W. Norton; Blue Dawn, Red Earth, New Native American Storytellers,<\/em> Anchor Books; Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing about Learning to be American, <\/em>Viking Penguin, as well as in poetry journals such as Shenandoah, North American Review, Poetry Northwest<\/a><\/em> and most recently in The Raven Chronicles<\/a><\/em> and Florida Review.<\/em> She calls both Seattle and Moscow, Idaho home (among other places) and teaches part time with Northwest Indian College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After Viewing the Holocaust Museum\u2019s Room of Shoes and a Gallery of Plains\u2019 Indian Moccasins: Washington, D.C. The portrait is clear; one is art the other evidence. One is artifact the other atrocity. Each is interned behind glass, with … Continue reading