Time Traveller

I feel sometimes
Trapped in time,
Immovable.
Read the stories of my ancestors,
One pair of shoes between the two of them.
Relive history in my mind,
Bubonic Plague,
Potato Famine.
Trace loss and heartbreak
In my family line.
Am I so different?

Should I be proud to graduate?
The first in my family,
5 years of University.
I look around this humble home;
It collapses like cardboard
Under my scrutiny.
Am I so much better off?

The bar for acceptable poor is raised,
But I might go hungry one day,
Freeze through the night in my own home.
Can I escape my birth?
Fame and fortune are Illusions,
Carrots dangled just out of reach.

I feel the sickness of cold winters
And stretched budgets,
Slowly the plague spreads.
I huddle in a blanket,
Eyes flash,
Reveal visions of the past.

Other cold winters long ago,
Mud-stained clothes.
Labouring everyday,
For little pay.
An old woman, frail.
Breath in a cloud of ice.

Rainbow Oceans

You painted the world for me

In solid coloured provinces

Of unseen foreign lands,

And rainbow oceans.

I wanted to paint the world for you

In country outlines,

Capital cities,

Geographic regions.

I pointed to us

And your eyes grew blank.

My heart ached for tears unshed,

Longing for your world of rainbow oceans.

Herstory

You show me this book

And tell me it's history,

But if his story is so full of little white lies,

Things fallen through the cracks,

Details conveniently forgot,

I want to see less history.

Tell me herstory.

It will be round and full

Like a woman of nine moons,

And through her story

Words will be woven in loving kindness,

Strung together

In community,

Held in our hearts for generations,

Gathered on the hearth for recollection.

Soft or saucy words,

Wild, twinkling eyes

And merry laughs,

Vibrant and beautiful,

This is her story.

Never dry like history;

Never frail.

No pages missing,

No words left unwritten.

But if you must

Place them side by side;

Undo the bindings.

Take herstory and history,

Re-stitch them as one volume.

Call it theirstory,

Leave empty pages

For ourstory.

A volume never done...

Colonial Frames

Through these dark eyes

We watched the turns of time

Men pale as ghosts

Searching the wilderness

Hoping to find themselves

Courageous

Fool-hardy

They came at first

In boats strung up with clouds

Stepped on these shores

Barely land-born before

Ice and snow brought death

We nursed them in longhouses

But they breathed death on us

And soon we too fell

Villages became bone-yards

And as their numbers grew

They climbed mountains

Navigated waterways

Crossed plains

In search of furs

Greed lead them

Like wild dogs

And when the animals hid

They sought to take the earth

Our villages were reordered

To make Rupert's Land

And as greed grew

Rupert's Land shrank

Replaced by settlements

And paths of double steel

They drew invisible lines

Gave names

To what they never owned

Cities grew out of stone and steel and soot

Rupert's Land disappeared

Our eyes grew fewer

Viewed the world

Through lenses of suffering

Northwest Territories

And then Nunavut

To mark a new age

Proclaiming it time

Traditions fade away

You try to tell me

Our eyes are all the same

Glance for once

On the stains of history

Speak those words again

Yeomen

We came, long years ago

Built homes like gnomes

Sod hills

Rustic abodes

For vessels

Sought trees for timber

Soon licked by brine

Sea caked with salt

We made no friends

With men of bronze

Watching ghost towns

Emerge

With frightened eyes

Long before

Gallic Tongues

Spoke L'Anse aux Meadows

And by our hands

Broke earth

Sowed seeds for generations

But in vain

Neither Christ nor Thor

Would give us rain

Thunderstruck

Our broken company

Fled to the whale road

Dropped scythes for oars

Swept water

Rode tides home

Failed Exploration

Dredged up for the depths

1000 leagues

And muffled descent

Shadowy and still

Steel chains groan

The pressure is too great

Bend and snap

Dragged free-fall

To the bottom of the sea

Rock gently in this cradle

Where no light shines

Slip into an eternal darkness

Rest softly

In your coffin of metal and glass

Franklin

Feeling winter's bite

Icy grips

Chilling to the bone

Looking northwards

Eyes set on barren tundra

Water, rock, and ice

Do these mukluks dare

Follow footsteps faded

Clothed in blizzard's fate

History in shallow graves

Frost-burnt withered skin

Iced up to the bone

Arctic mummies

Chilling gleaming teeth

Glassy eyes

Seeing the beyond

Stomach full of lead

Death wraps

Tighter than scarves

Choking frosty breath