for Diane
we kneel in this stream
as mother, as father
cup our hands
and drink from this water
because we believe the salmon
who were spawned in this bed
will someday return
tattered, exhausted, alive
oh, the glorious things
we do to survive
Copyright © 1996 by Sherman Alexie. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Sherman Alexie is the author of twenty-two books, including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, winner of the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature; War Dances, winner of the 2010 PEN Faulkner Award; and the poetry collection Face (Hanging Loose P). His new collection of stories is Blasphemy (Grove P). He lives with his family in Seattle.