Kokopelli
I hear his flute on the canyon winds.
Kokopelli is coming to town.
The young men practice the festival dances.
The old men count the hides and corn
they’ve kept to trade for turquoise and coral.
Old women smile and hum with the flute,
remembering Kokopelli’s songs,
remembering Kokopelli’s arms.
Down at the river the pueblo’s girls
are washing their hair with yucca root,
whispering of Kokopelli’s songs,
whispering of Kokopelli’s arms.
Kokopelli is coming to town.
I hear his flute on the canyon winds.
Kokopelli Snake Dance -- Steve Koons
To the Hopi and other indigenous people of the southwestern US, Kokopelli is a mischievous trickster, a symbol of fertility who brings well-being to them, assuring success in hunting, planting, growing crops, and human conception. Though his likeness varies, he is usually shown as a humpbacked flute player, often with a large phallus and antenna-like protrusions on his head. Some images show knobby knees and club feet. The humpback image may have evolved from the sack slung over the shoulders of the potchecas, itinerant traders from Mexico who announced their arrival at the pueblo by blowing a flute. According to the Hopi, his sack contained babies to be left with young women. At San Idelfonso, a Pueblo village, Kokopelli is portrayed as a wandering minstrel with a sack of songs on his back who trades old songs for new ones. According to the Navajo, he is a god of harvest and plenty whose sack is made of clouds full of rainbows or seeds.
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