I Heard the Eagles’ Piercing Cries!
The Story of a
Trap Line Pregnancy.
I was silent witness to this story that unfolds
Until I heard the Eagles’ cries
Saw all with Eagles’ eyes
And I became a Whistle Blower of the Skies.
Said the
The Matriarch of Taltan.
To the Clinic Nurse.
“Baby’s heart is beating good
But gotta go with Joey,
Go trappin’ cabin loop.
Baby kicking pretty good
Hey!
Punching me in belly
Maybe
Pop out soon
On trap line.
We’ll try traders’ snow machine
Says to use it.
Easier ‘an dogs.
We’ll do five cabin route
Snow’s crisp,
Maybe lynx.
My kids
Go grandpa’s.
He likes having kids.
If baby come
Need ani’septics,
Clinic stuff.”
The nurse said,
“I’ll give you maternity care but don’t you dare go with Joey on the trap line
YOU STAY RIGHT HERE IN THE CLINIC
You’re too close to your time.”
Said the Mom.
“I done three on the line.”
She was Eagle clan
Matriarch of Taltan.
Riding tandem on machine
Tummy holding life
Heart beats double, bigger now and the cardio rhythm rebounds
Against Joey’s bum.
Two stroke.
Smell of oily smoke.
Staccato whine of throttle goosing skidoo and sled
snow shatters
Skin numb, frostbite
Faces blacken
Sharp air swirls in clouds
Shadow go, tree go, sky go, colour go, signs go ,trail go, sight go, skin tight.
Asteroids in flight
Slice Joey’s eyes
Pierced now
By blue pained light seen before the end of sight
In a day of night
swirling
Towards a Worlding Door
That’s
No
More
Piston puller dead.
Can’t sniff ahead.
No bitches’ yelp
No huskies’ help
From fur and blood.
In snow numb
Contractions come
Fetus beating like a Drum Baby coming all but Done Taltan Elders Come
All Their Relations, Calling All Creations
The Shuffle of Their Feet to the Rawhide Drum
Deep gut chanting Whole bod panting
from throat and tum
Dead But Done.
Delivered
At the settlement
Indian Mom
Cracks open
A fur parcel.
Her hands hold
A terracotta doll
Precious
Lifted as an offering to Mother Earth
From sled
New birth
Baby dead
Placenta tissue burned by cold
Pompeii stasis.
White dust
Settles
In ashen
Stillness
From infant
Nose,
Nipples,
Toes
Hardened
Like an artifact
Herculaneum.
I saw anguish in Mothers’ eyes.
The clinic nurse said,
“That’s a crime. No good Mom chooses birthing on a trap line.
It was thirty below with blowing snow. Take her other kids and place them.
IT’S CHILD NEGLECT”
I saw anger in Health Care Eyes.
Cops seized Mom’s other kids at grandpa’s.
They would disappear
Like nested eaglets knocked to free fall
By a loggers saw
To downward despair
Southern care
When I was there
As witness!
For The Righteous and The Just, Their Will be done on Earth as it is ‘engraven’
By culture given
To isolate
And
Assimilate
Did I ask them why?
Did I hear the Eagles’ piercing cries?
I saw hate in the Mothers’ eyes.
“Give my kids back
I’m a good Mom.
I done three on the line.
It ain’t no crime”
She was Eagle clan
Matriarch of Taltan.
Wild spirit soared in Native eyes and I heard the Eagle’s piercing cries.
I was silent witness to this story
Until I heard the Eagles’ cries
When I saw all with Eagles’ eyes
And I became a
Whistle Blower of the Skies.
