Stories

Tell Me A Story (M.A. Reilly, 2011)

Ceremony 

 - Leslie Marmon Silko

I will tell you something about stories,"

[he said] 

They aren't just entertainment. 

Don't be fooled. 

They're all we have, you see. 

All we have to fight off illness and death. 

You don't have anything 

if you don't have the stories. 

Their evil is mighty, 

but it can't stand up to our stories. 

So they try to destroy the stories, 

but the stories cannot be confused or forgotten. 

They would like that. 

They would be happy 

because we would be defenseless then.

[He rubs his belly]

I keep it in here,

[he said] 

Here, put your hand on it. 

See? 

It is moving. 

Ts' its' tsi' nako, Thought-Woman,

is sitting in her room

and what ever she thinks about

appears.

She thought of her sisters,

Nau' ts' ity' i and I' tcs' i,

and together they created the Universe

this world

and the four worlds below.

Thought-Woman, the spider,

named things and

as she named them 

they appeared.

She is sitting in her room

thinking of a story now

I'm telling you the story

she is thinking.