Ron Nigrini

this creature

In my dream Crazy horse reaches into his chest
to draw forth this contract, written on shell,
shell from a box turtle I remember.
He trusts it to me, questions in his laser eyes.
The turtle opens its trap-door

& peers up at its dreamer. My own hand
passes through my breastbone with the turtle.
I leave this creature there, alive, & wake,
a child again, having done, without thinking,
at least this once, the right thing.

from "Crazy Horse In Stillness" by William Heyen,
BOA Editions, Ltd., Brockport, N.Y. 1996