they reach a place in your heart
deep and timeless
where your laughter bursts into tears
where you ache and wonder and dream
the words she speaks
they make you want to shed layers
of artificial skin
assigned to you at birth
and every year since
by dominant culture
the words she speaks are poetic
they entice you to move from your belly center
to writhe and rise in a new dance
gleaming and transcendent
colors vividly reflecting those woven
by your ancestors in cold winters
the patterns of those worn on the earth by their feet
as they migrated north and west and further west
until they reached volcanic lands
edged by the Pacific
veined in rivers
colonized by white peoples
her poetry makes you want
to remember what has been buried inside
forgotten through generations of assimilation
her poetry makes you want
to reclaim the lost ways
of your great great great great grandmothers
her poetry makes you want
to return what has been stolen