The name you call us by
is not the name we call ourselves.
So Apache becomes for us Nde,
a name you can barely pronounce.
The Zuni called us
Apache, “the enemy,”
and you chose
to do the same.
A small part of us
became all we were to you,
as if calling out a part
conjured the whole,
as if naming a peak
described the range.
Pike’s Peak for the Rockies,
Mount Rushmore for the Black Hills —
and of course none of those
are real names, either.
Dark Matter 