You wake from dream of death
to call of great horned owl
right outside your window
Door slams inside closed room
Who is there with you?
In dark room in dark bed
in dark of night you see
with bright clarity
how you must
die to former self
You lie awake and listen
in ecstatic fear
to owl’s calling
owl’s warning
owl’s truthing
Kimberly L. Becker is author of Words Facing East; The Dividings (WordTech Editions), and Flight (forthcoming, MadHat Press). Her work appears widely in journals and anthologies, including IDK Magazine, Panoply, Indigenous Message on Water; Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence; and Tending the Fire: Native Voices and Portraits.