Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!
For this session we read an excerpt from the novel “The Ceremony p. 91-92 ” by Leslie Marmon Silko, posted below.
Our prompt was: “Write about being seen from the outside.”
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The Ceremony p. 91-92 by Leslie Marmon Silko
She sat with the sheets pulled around her and watched him get dressed. “I have been
watching you for a long time,” she said. “I saw the color of your eyes.”
Tayo did not look at her.
“Mexican eyes,” he said, “the other kids used to tease me.”
The rain was only a faint sound on the roof, and the sound of the thunder was distant, and
moving east. Tayo unbolted the door and opened it; he watched the rainwater pour out of the
rain gutter over the side of the long porch. “I always wished I had dark eyes like other
people. When they look at me they remember things that happened. My Mother. His throat
felt tight. He had not talked about this before with anyone.
She shook her head slowly. “They are afraid, Tayo. They feel something happening, they
can see something happening around them, and it scares them. Indians or Mexicans or
whites – most people are afraid of change. They think that if their children have the same
color of skin, the same color of eyes, that nothing is changing.” She laughed slowly. “They
are fools. They blame us, the one who look different. That way they don’t have to think
about what has happened inside themselves.”
Credit: Leslie Marmon Silko