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when we banish tongues

By Tanaya Winder

i.
we've entered a New World
Order on words, days
of economic deprivation
where only one percent thrives.
time is dictated by greediness
and fear, days when books
are banned by the belief
consumed. unnerved
from tainted verbs,
smallpox blankets waiting
to infect them with brownness,
as if it seeps through pages
it’s become contagious
to their white space.

ii.
the world changed
from childhood where i roamed
aisles, books stacked high
reaching for titles, birds to carry me
into other worlds. lift me into flight.

iii.
destination: past.
remember though we’ve been tortured, raped,
and burned, we always come back.
even when they try to silence cries
the classroom caged bird still sounds a song.

iv.
didn't we first start losing ourselves
with tongues banished? if we bury all books
containing atrocity will that change
history? this has happened before.
if history repeats itself i worry about
the children i have
yet to have: will i
be able to read to them
in bed at night? will they wake up
asking: where are the books?

v.
where are the books?
what happened to them? What
will I read my children? and where?

vi.
classroom banished words
become contraband. so i will
put bird ready-messengers
to paper, hold my piece
in my mouth until words
migrate out.

though their wings may ache
with oppression, they’ll recite oral histories
hidden in the constellations,
we will tell our children
we needed the entire sky
to tell our story
the blank page
just wasn’t
enough
space

 

 

 

 

Listen as Tanaya Winder reads when we banish tongues.
Added: Friday, March 7, 2025  /  Used with permission. From "Words Like Love" by Tanaya Winder, by permission of University of New Mexico Press.
Tanaya Winder
Photo by Viki Eagle.

Tanaya Winder is an author, singer, and motivational speaker from an intertribal lineage of Southern Ute, Pyramid Lake Paiute, and Duckwater Shoshone Nations, where she is an enrolled citizen. Tanaya’s performances and talks emphasize the importance of “heartwork” – everyone has a gift to help heal the world. She blends storytelling, singing, and spoken word to teach about different expressions of love, youth & women’s empowerment, healing trauma through art, mental wellness advocacy, and healing-centered coaching. A featured TEDxABQ speaker, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY, The Rumpus, and World Literature Review, among others. Her published poetry collections include Words Like Love, Why Storms are Named After People and Bullets Remain Nameless, and Words To Love By. 

Image Description: Tanaya Winder stands against a grey backdrop and faces the camera with arms folded, holding her hands in front of her waist. She has dark curly hair and wears blue dangling earrings and a blue beaded choker.

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