***
with the spirit banished
and my body recovered
and a couple trees drained
to unwrinkle my skin and un-stoop my back,
I set out
to locate
a secluded
realm
(not full of snow and ice)
where I could feel
the tingles of the strings
tightening around me,
clear
as a crisp autumn wind–
I only took
two classes at school
on the strings of fate
and it’d been so long
since I paid attention to
that feeling of things
tightening around me,
squeezing me down some path,
that I’d nearly forgotten it happened at all
(some things
we don’t get better at
as we get older)
but if I went somewhere
quiet–
away from the rustling trees
and distant screams
and echoes of history–
maybe
I’d relearn
to recognize
that snaking, invisible touch
and maybe it’d teach me
more about itself
than what I remembered of it
from two classes
centuries ago.
***
Fun fact: November is National American Indian Heritage Month in the USA.
This reminded me that I did research into Inuit culture for Graveyard of Lullabies…but then I went “the specific language I used, Inuktitut, isn’t spoken in the U.S., not even Alaska, it’s used in Eastern Canada” so November isn’t really relevant.
And National Indigenous History Month in Canada is June, not November. So…happy belated June?
Jordyn Saelor 