HORSEFLY DRESS by Heather Cahoon
A long wing feather propels the stunted body of a black-crowned night heron through air , breaking apart the dried mouth of memory .
In an outpouring of primordial story I hear her name :
Č ’ atnaɫqs
The hunting moon unearths Coyote ’ s eldest and only daughter , her name no longer spoken she turned to porous stone . But I hear her name Č ’ atnaɫqs along Flathead River near Revais in the cutting of meat its crackled drying above smoldering cottonwood .
* Č ’ ATNAɫQS
Č̓atnaɫqs is the Salish name for Horsefly Dress , Coyote and Mole ’ s only daughter . Her name comes from čȧtnaɫq ( horsefly ) and cištpálqs ( dress / skirt — from lqs , alqs , suffix meaning clothes .
Č ’ atnaɫqs at the edge of river in passing water , the embodiment of belief , she perforates the divide between known and unknown . Here , she reconsiders the archeology of our suffering .
Her mouth opens in the alarm cry of a brown thrasher , a warning : Brace for all that ’ s wrapped into a name .
26 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE