Free Original Fire by Louise Erdrich Page B

forehead
    against the cool, black granite facade
    of some building, and ask the stone
    to bless you?
    We are not impartial.
    We acknowledge some forms
    of consideration.
    We open for those
    who adhere to our one rule
    endure .

6 Infinite Thought
    Listen, there is no consciousness
    before birth or
    after death
    except the one you share
    with us.
    So you had best learn
    how to speak to us now
    without the use of signs.
    Remember, there will be no hands,
    except remembered hands.
    No lips, no face,
    except remembered face.
    No legs and in fact no
    appendages, except
    the remembered ones,
    which always hurt
    as consciousness hurts.
    Now do you understand what it is?
    Your consciousness
    is the itch, the ghost of consciousness,
    remembered
    from how it felt
    to be one of us.

About the Author
    LOUISE ERDRICH is the author of ten novels, as well as volumes of poetry, children’s books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction. She lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.
     
    Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

ALSO BY L OUISE E RDRICH
    NOVELS
    Love Medicine
    The Beet Queen
    Tracks
    The Bingo Palace
    Tales of Burning Love
    The Antelope Wife
    The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
    The Master Butchers Singing Club
    Four Souls
    WITH M ICHAEL D ORRIS
    The Crown of Columbus
    POETRY
    Jacklight
    Baptism of Desire
    FOR CHILDREN
    Grandmother’s Pigeon
    The Birchbark House
    The Range Eternal
    NONFICTION
    The Blue Jay’s Dance
    Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country

Copyright
    The author would like to thank and acknowledge the editors of Georgia Review , in which “Time” originally appeared in slightly different form.

    ORIGINAL FIRE . Copyright © 2003 by Louise Erdrich. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
    ePub edition August 2006 ISBN 9780061751400
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
    ISBN 0-06-093534-0
    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

    Australia
    HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
    25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
    Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
    http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

    Canada
    HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
    55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
    Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
    http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

    New Zealand
    HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
    P.O. Box 1
    Auckland, New Zealand
    http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

    United Kingdom
    HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
    77-85 Fulham Palace Road
    London, W6 8JB, UK
    http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

    United States
    HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
    10 East 53rd Street
    New York, NY 10022
    http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com