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Child in the belly of the world stirring and scratching in my womb like wind under the ashes of last night’s fire
remember, that seal baby with moon eyes and moon fur will keep you warm in the long Arctic freeze without it you too would lie bleeding in the snow.
Your father is hunting tonight as the days slip away into darkness while you linger and grow in the warmest place on earth
your fingers pre-sensing the touch of drum tracing the heartbeat of ice. I dream of a dog that is really a bird
a king who lives under the sea controlling whales and the paths they take. I dream of ravens pecking at walrus eyes
bears with embracing arms caribou tossing back antlered heads like gods of war. I am so glad
white geese will soon be calling with their man voices as they fly to their tundra home
grateful that the bearded seal your father hunts shivers like an old woman who has lost her place by the fire.
Will you come as a daughter of the warm west wind melt ice-floes with each powdered breath ? or will you be a son of the north
shaping a tiny fist to my finger like ice round a sled? I am silenced by the impatience of love will not sing in my throat again
till the snowy owl brings wild coverlets in its beak
The bird turned into a man so beautiful snow lay on his shoulders like ermine
was he petrel or fulmar? he didn’t say
At first he came only in dreams one summer night lay with her
at dawn she left her house to marry him
Who could explain her father’s rage? The storms of Anguta reached across oceans
she knew full joy only six days before
he killed her husband threw her in his umiak - pushed her overboard when winds frightened him
she wouldn’t give in gripped the boat so hard
he had to chop her fingers off one by one did not know that in her new Kingdom
they would transform into mermaids narwhals seals and serpents walruses singing humpback whales
“No one knows her beginning; no one knows her end”
It’s bone-breaking cold ice packs round the heart as she careens round the side of the hill fur-packed in her sled drawn by phoenixes through a blizzard of what looks like falling blossom
how cold these birds are! Each elegant turquoise feather edged in ermine white Each night one of them self-immolates under her winter smile to warm those delicate ringed hands
She promises everything will rise again better than before stays silent on the matter of whether she brings eternal life or will bury us so deep in desert sand
you’ll tread our graves unknowing
January 1
mongoose going straight he say live down bad reputation
make sunshine come to faces of small children
watch over nesting hens smile sweet when they look frighted
don be afraid of me no more he say I done gone vegetarian
mongoose swear on fatted calf he bother folk no more
he going sit in back of church no shout when people praying
no cheer when preacher finish no steal no bread and wine
don be afraid of me no more he say I done got religion
January 2
mongoose cast out of heaven
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