Making

 

I have seen those dolls, some Indian-made,

or of settler girls. Corn husks and cobs,

dried currant eyes, wheat silk hair. Or

stuffed with straw, flour sewn in bags

for body and warmth. Scraped up from

clay, twigs rolled in mud, leaves wrapped

into arms. Seeds and wool for clothes.

This is how it is, I think, how it always

should be. Woman made of earth and

nature, ripe with the rough touch and grit

of sand and rippling water. Not because

history claims them. But just because

woman makes what she can from what

she knows: the taste of ashes to ashes,

dirt to dirt, the quiet made from walking

through the knee-high grasses. If you let

her. If you just leave her to do what she

knows, flesh and bones of her own making,

if you just let her be.

 

 

 

Joey Brown’s poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in a number of literary journals including Rhino, The Mid-America Poetry Review, The Dos Passos Review, Compass Rose, Pinyon, Clare, The Chaffin Journal, Quiddity, Front Range Review, storySouth, Freshwater, and The Florida Review. Her work has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize three times. In 2010, Mongrel Empire press published a collection of her poems titled Oklahomaography.

Joey holds an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Oklahoma. She is a writing professor and teaches writing workshops.