Orlando White
 (credit: Layli Long Soldier) Orlando White’s first book of poetry, Bone Light, was published by Red Hen Press in 2009. Originally from Tólikan, Arizona, he is Diné (Navajo) of the Naaneesht’ézhi Tábaahí (Zuni Water’s Edge Clan). White holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA from Brown University. He currently teaches at Diné College. |
Cephalic
I place a black cloth the size of a dot over his head. Wrap his entire miniscule body with a thread of my black hair. He lies there on a white sheet of paper and squirms like a dark cocoon, thinks he is going to transform. The letter, when it begins to lose color in a book never opened, becomes a macula in thought. And when read through the lens of a decimal point: see its dark fleck of a cranium, see expendable language—grab the letter j next to him, hold it like a tiny black scythe, behead the i, and watch its dot head roll to the back of a sentence. [Originally published in Salt Hill Journal Issue 23, 2009] | Website | |
