Last week's featured poet, Pamela Uschuk, happens to be the mentor of this week's poet, Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney.
A Diné Tribal member, Maloney grew up on the island of O’ahu where his father was stationed by the military. He says it was an isolating experience at times, but he found comfort and creativity at the local library and by playing punk rock music. Maloney says poetry was a natural leap from there. He now teaches composition at Diné College.
In the latest segment of KNAU's series PoetrySnaps!, Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney shares his poem Ambulance with No Siren, set near the Tuba City medical center, and he talks about the key role his mentor played in helping him develop his craft.
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney:
In college, my mentor Pam Uschuk, she really kind of pushed me in that direction, you know, telling me, “Hey, this is really cool!” I was a high school dropout, and I had self-esteem issues and such. But, she really encouraged me to pursue this thing. She was really honest with me. She didn't say I was talented. She said, “you can do better if you put the work into it.”
I didn't talk to her for about 10 years. I had a few publications here and there, and I reconnected with her about five years ago. I dedicated some of my book to her. She was really instrumental in pushing me in that direction to pursue it.
Ambulance with No Siren
By Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney
No flashes, no wails, travelling five below
the speed limit, the ambulance’s siren is
silent.
Inching through traffic, the imposing emergency
vehicle yields to pedestrians, slows at yellow lights
and stops at reds.
Designed to move like a 14,000 pound meteorite screaming at
all in its way, it’s meant to hurl towards its
destination unrestrained by the rules of the road.
The tradeoff, the contract motorists enter accepts and
understands the necessary peril so that a service
may be implemented effectively with the hope that
in their moment of emergency, a path will be cleared
so that a savior may arrive swiftly.
But when the siren is silent and the rules of the road
are observed, hope is silent.
The siren blares life, the siren shrieks pain,
a pain that can still be felt and treated, a pain that
is not patient, a pain that cannot wait, a pain that
insists to be acknowledged by a siren responding
with equal earnest demanding to be heard.
A silent siren’s destination is death.
Death is not an emergency.
About the poet:
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney is a Tuba City-based poet and teacher at Diné College. His work has appeared in Turtle Island Quarterly, Peach Velvet Lit Mag, About Place, and Cutthroat. His debut full-length work Health Carefully was released in 2019. Maloney is currently producing a collaborative spoken word/instrumental album featuring his mentor Pamela Uschuk and poet William Pitt Root. It’s slated for release in the spring of 2023.
About the host:
Steven Law is a poet, journalist and educator based in Page, Arizona. He is the author of a collection of poems called Polished.
About the music:
Original music by Flagstaff-based band Pilcrowe.
