White Girl on the Reservation at Night
A poem
You shouldn’t be out here at night
White girl
you don’t want to learn
life here
This place is guarded by Windigo
and street gangs
down Walk-house Bay
and up to the sewage treatment plant
Bearwalkers are set for revenge
over some past wrong
you don’t wanna be here
here White girl
the rebellion is still goin on
Go with the old women
closed up in their shacks
repairing their fish nets
for the dawn
Go with some tea and pouch of tobacco
roll the old women’s cigarettes
Go before the bodies rise
and the moon is high
and the dogs roam
in packs
Don’t the refuse the lard
and scone
My grandmothers give you
Go before the night
begins grasping for its breath
Listen to my grandmothers gossip
and their superstitious
Shaaaaa ehhhhhh
Curl up with quilts
on the couch
White girl
and listen to the layers of darkness
coming over this place