To an Apache Basket

Fernando Esteban Flores

February 26, 2023

(at the Witte Museum)

Elaborate—no

Nor elaborating

No sweet melodies to contemplate

A more flowery tale could not be told

Unlike Keats’s Grecian urn this simple tendered thing

Unearthed & raised from desert sands yet its own story does hold

What burdens of survival you must have borne

When first birthed into the world & to this day survive to tell

Skilled leathery hands that from the earth drew life from you

Pitched & shaped to give you artful form

How many thirsty souls drank from your lips

What weary calloused hands pressed & passed you forth

Your very presence sings a simple human phrase

A quiet-tempered song of praise

Fernando Esteban Flores is a native son of Tejas, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, published three books of poetry: Ragged Borders, Red Accordion Blues, & BloodSongs available through Hijo del Sol Publishing, published in multiple journals, reviews, newspapers, and online sites, selected in 2018-19 by the Department of Arts & Culture of the City of San Antonio, with support from Gemini Ink for his poem “Song for America V (Yo Soy San Antonio)” as one of 30 poems/poets to commemorate the City’s Tricentennial anniversary, and recently became poetry editor of the Catch the Next Journal of Ideas & Pedagogy.