method for making a death mat – Pearl Button

golden orioles, red-winged black birds

playing amongst the tule

*Tule [Schoenoplectus acutus], woven, makes a house

covering, and your body’s shroud when you die. How do I tell you

that dozing far from that water, my burial mat close,

I hear those birds singing.

Pearl Button is an artist living in the Salishan Territories of western North America. She’s published in a variety of journals under a variety of names.