Statement and Poetry: A Great Writing Combo

Whenever Someone Asks Me: How Are You So Against Tar Sands, Pipelines and Tankers?

Tar sands and then buying gasoline rips apart the fabrics of my Indian identity. I am anti-tar sands production of oily sand mining due to the realities of colonial law…a backwards law that proclaims oil mining is “king” and its industrial machine then concludes, controls, and commands on why its grain of tar infested sand is best to be moving said oily sands through derelict pipes filled to the brim with a cocktail of chemicals to do so, unstable trains bound for derailment seen daily, unsafe tankers wandering through unpredictable waters with a resume of wrecks and untimely enough, oil lined sand is only a capitalist’s wet dream to be selling dirty, sandy oil to every country save so-called Kanata, yet all this dirty, sandy oil is an Indian’s greatest nightmare for dirty, sandy oil will always ruin the lands, rivers, streams and waters…I stand against the idea because tar sands mining will always ruin our Mother Earth: This is not how I was raised to treat Women of Power.

 

Poem 1

“Atmospherically Divided”

 

Blood seeps into rivers

Ashes of the ancestors blow

Freely like the wind moving

Into the valley and around the mind

 

Flood the plains

The coast became mountains

The island was free and given light

This new sight brought us into view

 

Sung with prayer

Creator made rain

Filling a puddle

Washing away her pain

 

Sight through new light

Fog, flog, and bog: colonial law – –

Where is the door

To escape a societal norm

 

Rivers flow as an immortal rage

Death has already taken her down

Forests suddenly became a town

Madness, sadness, a drain

 

Forward we go through pipes

Pain, strain, as culture rides this drain

Frustration grips my brain

I cannot easily flee this train

 

Capitalistic progression – –

Suppression captures all

Corporate orders filled

Lands silently killed

 

We speak loudly

Greed shall blame Eco-terrorists

Silently spoken no more

We must salvage the Earth’s core

 

Words bore a path

Indians and their wrath

Guarding knowledge of old

Messages told through the ages

 

Pages reached stubborn ears

Pushing through the years

I found a culture ripped

At the foundation

 

Is a village of people?

Fighting to preserve a way

No government has a say

To ancient times

 

Speaking truth to those living in vanity

Rhymes will salvage my sanity

Oceans passing into mortals breathe

Unrest, unrestricted, unrestrained

 

Poem 2

“Gutter”

Dud

Mud

Cud

 

Fluid

Druid

Threw it

 

Raw

Crude

Rude – –

Dude!

 

Indian

Native

Might

 

White

Right

Naïve

 

Plight

Fight

Sight

 

Mad

Fad

Sad

 

Fake

Cake

Fuck

Sake

 

Remake

New

Renew

Old

 

Bold

Color

Cold

Story

 

Expansion

Empire

Expire

Yesterday

 

Test

To

Clean

Up

 

An

Old

Mess

Made

 

Reborn

In

Ancestral

Form

 

We

Will

Rise

Again

 

Standing

On

The

Wall

 

Governmental

Depressions

Form

Words

 

Movements

Built

For

Peace

 

Indian

Nations

Living

Atop

Colonial

Occupation

 

Ending

Chaos

Is

The

Goal

 

We

Still

Have

A

Very

 

Long

Way

To

Go