"Buffalograss" by Jake Skeets

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( September 12, 2019 [Buffalograss]( [Jake Skeets]( Barely-morning pink curtains drape an open window. Roaches scatter, the letter t vibrating in cottonwoods. His hair horsetail and snakeweed. I siphon doubt from his throat for the buffalograss. Seep willow antler press against the memory of the first man I saw naked. His tongue a mosquito whispering its name a hymn on mesquite, my cheek. The things we see the other do collapse words into yucca bone. The Navajo word for eye hardens into the word for war. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2019 Jake Skeets. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 12, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. [Skeets reads "Buffalograss."]( About This Poem “This poem began as a conversation between the Navajo words anáá' and anaa'. Anáá' can be translated to ‘eye’ and anaa' can be translated into ‘war.’ The act of desire can become violent, especially between Native men. I imagined a man seeing another man naked in front of him for the first time; these men become engaged in wants of the eye, desires of the body, but also in an act of war. The couplet, a form that wants harmony between two lines, seemed to be the most perfect fit to speak toward this tension, this desire, this war.” —Jake Skeets [Jake Skeets]( Jake Skeets’s debut collection, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers (Milkweed, 2019), was selected by Kathy Fagan for the 2018 National Poetry Series. He teaches at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona, located in the Navajo Nation. [Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers]( Poetry by Skeets [Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers]( (Milkweed Editions, 2019) "The Caravan" by Sherwin Bitsui [read-more]( "How the Milky Way Was Made" by Natalie Diaz [read-more]( "A Queerification" by Regie Cabico [read-more]( September Guest Editor: Eduardo C. Corral Thanks to [Eduardo C. Corral](, author of Guillotine, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2020, who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a [Q&A with Corral]( about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our [guest editors for the year.]( Your Support Makes Poem-a-Day Possible Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. This free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on the weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. [make a one-time donation]( [illustration]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038 From Our Advertisers [Advertisement](