Power of Never, Squared
The Power of Never, Squared
for Joy Harjo
Today is December 11th of an El Nino year,
and this is my morning walk:
snowless clouds watch over Squirrels
who still wear their fall colors
as they sashay down the runway
of brown leaves, collecting lingering
acorns. They are Native here
and have nothing to prove. Like me,
they live wild, protest colonization
(which includes the term New England)
and have accepted the inevitability
of several inches of snow fallen
by Thanksgiving.
We are all falling fast
towards the border between worlds
What happens when it draws this near
is that even the children are aware
of the veil, lifting. Of the amalgamation
happening between truth and magic,
a process that reveals
the inherent metaphor in everything.
And the fact that nothing is ever as sudden
as we like to believe. I ask the Squirrels
if we’re going to be OK and they say
we will never make it
if we keep thinking of hurricanes
and Earth as the enemy,
if we don’t move past this idea of progress
that packages plastic hearts
like tiny ten cent machines
whose violated valves produce pollution
and beg us to erase ourselves.
If we don’t stop the plague of forgetting
what it truly means to be human.
I lean against a nearby Oak,
letting her hold me & love me
for a moment
while I watch the Squirrels dig holes
in the barely-frozen ground and
my trembling flesh-and-blood heart knows
they are right.
We are rising up, but still, it’s December 11th
and the afternoon is warm enough
that I grab only a windbreaker
on my way out the door. Seeing my niece
waiting by the car, I remind myself to change
a line of this poem, it should read:
especially the children are aware.
“We’re never going to make it!” I cry,
this time referencing the clock
and our scheduled hour of arrival
in Boston. “Never say never,”
offers the girl with a smile.
These words of faith are a gift to me
as are her eyes: two shining lanterns –
Sun and Moon, showing me the way.
*****
Kwe’ Everyone,
My dear friend Susan Deercloud submitted this poem of mine on the sly and, lo & behold, it is now in print. The Fall 2008 edition of Yellow Medicine Review ( http://yellowmedicinereview.com/index.html ) contains my poem “The Power of Never, Squared.” Wela’lin, my endless gratitude, to Susan.
Hello, world. Indeed.
