Saturday, December 15, 2018

remembering Mida


for Mida

my mind reels
       to think the world goes on
and you have fallen out of it
        I hope there are many
               companions to speak Kaska to
where you have gone

my heart aches remembering
       all the times we went
               into the bush
looking for medicine
    talking about the land
         remembering times long ago

we laughed like girls
   delighting in being out
      on the land together

walking trails of the past
       of the present
          dreams of girlhood
             Auntie Minnie–
                  cranberries

mistsí standing up
   in the wild rhubarb
            giving us a hard stare

your orange garbage bag rain coat
   rifle slung on your back
       as we walked up through the alpine
           on Jade mountain looking
for tangles of brown caribou horn

I remember burning wolverine’s packsack
   to bring the sky down
fires were burning up the land

too many years have gone by
     my academic career
         the rest of your days

now– empty
      a dull ache I
            cannot shake

I’ll never sit in your bright
   quiet living room watching you sew–
bright beads, patterns of flowers
  and stars, endless
     font of colours and patterns
spangling piles of uppers

empty– and still I cannot
            cry



Mida Donnessey, my Elder, mentor, friend, teacher, passed away at 90 on December 8.  I first met Mida and went out on the land with her in September 1997.