A little pouch,
made of muscle
and my blood.
Inside, it has
everything in
my whole life.
Some soft feathers
from when I was
a free bird,
free and flying
across the sky—
the sweet world;
some fierce-looking
and fear-causing
lion fur,
from my epoch
as defiant,
rebel beast;
two little horns
from my time as
worker ox,
obeying and
submitting to
every rule;
and, finally,
two more feathers
from the owl
I embody
at this time.
That is my heart,
and what has shaped
my whole life.
Mar 29
Mar 29, 2026 at 5:50 AM UTC
A little pouch,
made of muscle
and my blood.
Inside, it has
everything in
my whole life.
Some soft feathers
from when I was
a free bird,
free and flying
across the sky—
the sweet world;
some fierce-looking
and fear-causing
lion fur,
from my epoch
as defiant,
rebel beast;
two little horns
from my time as
worker ox,
obeying and
submitting to
every rule;
and, finally,
two more feathers
from the owl
I embody
at this time.
That is my heart,
and what has shaped
my whole life.
"Jish" is a Navajo word meaning "medicine bag", a native American traditional pouch carrying personal and sacred objects, supposedly protective.
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Copyright: Shattentraumer, 2026. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). Original: https://hellopoetry.com/poems/5280445/jish
