Crayfish

This is the second of four pages about American Indian art and writing. Tomorrow: reprints from two notable books by Indian authors, and art by Fritz Scholder. Thursday: an interview with two novelists. The warm hands the soft hands of kind men set fire near water where crayfish lived, and crayfish turned red crawling out of mud and water disappearing.

In the beginning the people taught crayfish to walk on two feet and to speak. Some remained among men. Others stayed behind. They are the silent ones who live in the mud of our footprints.

They follow us. They are red like the fire around them, the red light of morning, fire in birds flying under stars fire in men being followed afraid at night fear gripped inside the soft hands, the warm hands.