"... he rubbed desert sand over his flesh to purge the stench of captivity."

Rinconcito is a special little corner in Somos en escrito for short writings: a single poem, a short story, a memoir, flash fiction, and the like.
​

Two poems of Captivity and Stardust

By Robert René Galván 

The Education of Hastiin To’Haali 

Kill the Indian, save the man.
- Motto of the Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania 

​He arrived in 1882
in full regalia:
a magnificent mane,
hoop earrings
and a massive
necklace,
shoulders
draped
with a Navajo
blanket,
a face 
like a bronze
god’s.
It took four
years
to domesticate
the savage
and he left
the school 
as Tom Torlino,
shorn, 
dressed
like a dandy,
in a cravat
and coat,
the white
man’s words
on his tongue,
back to Coyote
Canyon
where he rubbed
desert sand
over his flesh
to purge
the stench
of captivity,
resumed
his duties 
​as medicine man. 

---

Valediction

Dad had earned the right 
to be valedictorian of his class 
at Fox Tech High,
but it wouldn’t do 
to have that brown face
ascend the podium 
​on that day,
 ​No, sir! 
So the principal, 
who would lock himself 
in his basement office 
and play Stardust
on his phonograph 
over and over, 
and who could be heard 
sobbing behind the door, 
put another boy in his stead; 
After graduation, 
Dad went for an interview 
downtown, but at the last instant 
withdrew his hand 
from the doorknob 
and walked home 
where his mother 
told him that the principal 
had called while he was out 
and had offered him
the one college scholarship 
he had to give that year,
perhaps out of a pang 
of guilt, which meant 
more to Dad than
the speech he had prepared, 
and so he went from barefoot 
paperboy to grading papers 
as he listened to tapes 
in his study: 

Sometimes I wonder 
why I spend the lonely nights 
dreaming of a song. 

---

Robert René Galván, born in San Antonio, resides in New York City where he works as a professional musician and poet. His last collection of poems is entitled, Meteors, published by Lux Nova Press. His poetry was recently featured in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Azahares Literary Magazine, Gyroscope, Hawaii Review, Newtown Review, Panoply, Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, and the Winter 2018 issue of UU World. He is a Shortlist Winner Nominee in the 2018 Adelaide Literary Award for Best Poem. Recently, his poems are featured in Puro ChicanX Writers of the 21st Century.  He was educated at Texas State University, SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Texas.

---