Eye Dazzler, by Bonnie Wehle

Eye Dazzler, by an unknown weaver, Navajo ( USA) 1885. Photo by the author.

​Eye Dazzler
 
it says on the label. And immediately 
I recall my ex-Navy ex-husband
explaining that battleships used to be painted 
in what was termed a dazzle design--
ocean colors, blues, grays and white in jagged lines
to disguise the ships, protect them from detection.
 
But this Navajo rug’s dazzle pattern
makes no pretense of disguise--
sharp angles of passionate reds, oranges, yellows 
zig and zag in broken rows,
slash, clash, argue with each other,
shout for attention.
 
In Navajo culture, the women are the weavers.
Inspiration for their designs comes from nature--
zig zags, I learn, are for lightning.
 
This is like no lightning I have ever seen.
No, this is a sunset,
a dazzling, shimmering sunset,
fighting the darkness,
saying look, look at me. 
 
I am woman 
I am passion
I am here, see me.

Bonnie Wehle

Bonnie Wehle is an octogenarian docent at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson, Arizona, who spends most of her time trying to write good poetry and walking her dog, Tillie. Her work has appeared in Coal Hill Review, River Heron Review, Sky Islands Journal, and elsewhere. Her chapbook A Certain Ache: Poems in Women's Voices, was published in 2022 by Finishing Line Press. Her second chapbook Little Altars is forthcoming for Kelsay Books in March 2025.