Mourning Dawns
REX LEE JIM
36.718105546658265, -109.62368132024014
He sat in the corner of
a red house
made of sandstone
the color of sunset,
head bowed,
on cooling red earth.
Crickets chirped between
cracked red clay, exposing
sticks of tamarack.
He imagined the sounds
giving voice to the silence of
a jeremiad
that entrapped
his brother’s spirit,
to always be
felt in the wind
howling through crevices
in red monoliths that stand nearby
on the floor of a
deserted desert.
REX LEE JIM is of the Red House People, born for the Red Streak Running into Water People. His maternal grandfather is of the Towering House People and his paternal grandfather is of the Spanish People. He is from the small ranching and farming community of Rock Point, AZ, where he was born, raised and continues to live. He is an ordained Blessing Way Singer. He is the dean of Dine Studies and Education and Executive Director of Navajo Sovereignty Institute at Dine Colllege, Tsaile, AZ.
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I grew up in Rock Point, AZ and continue to live there. That's where my family lives and we have a reciprocal, respectful interactive relationship with the place. This is my playground—where I learned to engage in language, ceremonies, and started school. It is where I was born and my umbilical chord is buried here.