when i went to the launch party last month, i bought two back issues of red ink. i've been passing through last spring's issue, vol. 13, no. 1. i came across this poem last night over dinner and just about had the wind knocked outta me. wasn't expecting this little doozie (prayer).

she will... live with memories that don't make sense

- - - - -

Daughter of a Yu'pik Woman
by Cynthia Deike-Sims

My daughter remembers eating
fish eyeballs and scooping the
fish from the bones after it was
boiled on the stove.
She was a baby but she has a
mind like a trap. A fishtrap.

The whitefish -- the akakiik.
Silvers, Sockeye, Kings, or Reds?

After years of the white man's food
she does not know how to
make sense of the tin can.
Her eyes lit up when telling
stories of Grandma's house
with good boiled fish.
The story changes, turning to
"Yuck" sometimes with giggles.
We remind her,
"You liked it. It was good."

Her trust of the homemade
went south sometime back
when she had to trust better
prepackaged fast food.
Her lessons of the system
were longer than preschool.
She paid attention
to talks about foster parents
when she should have been
learning the stories of
spawing Yukon King Salmon.

( the rest behind the cut )

eta: http://www.nerdnetworks.org/pcr/JohnHell-20080505.mp3

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