Sherman Alexie, "What We Notice, What We Miss"

Lucha's Song, Jim Davis-Rosenthal, 1999.

What We Notice, What We Miss
Sherman Alexie

Sixty-seven beer bottles hidden beneath the bed
of the departed house guest who pretended to be sober.

The fence and what is not
the fence.

In 1976, four bald eagles built nests on the power towers above the dam.
In 1977, they left. In 1994, they returned and built again.

The mirror that hung in the hallway for twenty years
now hangs in my sister’s bedroom.

During the powwow, the fancydancers
Before the powwow, the grandmothers gathering feathers.

The pain of an arm broken in childhood
seconds after we have broken the other arm as an adult.

The ant
carrying God on its shoulders.

Text © 1996, 1999 by Sherman Alexie
"What We Notice, What We Miss" first appeared in Many Mountains Moving, Volume II, Number 2. The work appears here by permission of the author.

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