First Nations mural – Toronto mcfcrandall.wordpress.com
Tell me again of the time
you were a child The time
of the winter when the wolves
were at your door begging for meat
and you took them in and fed them
and how when they had eaten
you found they were men
simply wearing fur coats
Tell me again how when
the child within you came
bursting your belly in a flood
of water & blood screaming in pain
how you could not know whether it
was your own scream or mine
and how you held me wet
upon your slippery breast
Tell me again of the day
you swam with the turtles
out by the coral reefs Turtles
so big you could ride on their backs
so old they no longer knew any fear
and how the one on the wall
saved you from drowning
when the boat capsized
“I will tell you something about stories:
They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled.
They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight
off illness & death. You don’t have anything
if you don’t have the stories.” ~ Leslie Marmon Silko, Pueblo Native
Poet's Corner 