He pressed the leaves into my skin
and watched them dry
over the years,
asking me
if the rain knows what it’s doing.
How many times have you counted the sun?
going down,
down,
down
“The rain knows what it’s doing.”
Jason Hockaday is from the Karuk Tribe and Happy Camp is his family’s village. He is a graduate student in Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, where he is enjoying teaching Introduction to Native American Literatures. Jason wrote “Making” in Lithia Park, where he was inspired by the visitors, water, hiking, and weather. He is an Indigenous language reclamation activist and has forthcoming fiction in Yellow Medicine Review.
Banner photo of Lithia Park by David Wood : CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
