No green color. . . .
These feed on roots or
on decaying material in soil.
. . . Most of our area.
(Peterson 20)
Adelahiganek,
Msoakwtegok,
Bemijijoasek
fingering the backs of Wobiwajoak
down the legs,
the silver head Gôdag Wajok
rime-etched
in a thousand winds.
Fir and spruce,
rabbit, squirrel, fisher, bear,
deer and moose
silver grass
trout and salmon
silver water
hawk and grouse
silver air.
Alnobâk feet in river-muck
under cohos
silver pines.
Then a sighting far-off
from the Atlantic
just one year after
Columbus:
hidden mountains,
treasure-mountains.
Pine masts,
stone forts,
the power of water.
Horses and cargo up rivers,
wagons along rivers
bridges over rivers,
sand, gravel,
mud, oil in rivers,
sulfur, acid,
chlorine, piss, puke
in the mountain-rivers.
Down valleys
factories, farms
aching bones of settlement
spent,
two hundred winters
abandoned.
Now in twigmeal niches
broken glass,
tin and iron
rust in moss,
monotropa uniflora
Indian Pipe
flower of ghosts
smoking stems of shadows
sipping tea
of decay,
yourself leafscale
black and falling.
Saprophytes
of vision, memory,
under cohos
silver pines.