Living the Dream

Birch trees, in Wood Buffalo National Park,
waiting slick and sappy,
like full-teated cows
for drizzle-down release

elders, who remember,
sweetening tea,
marinating moose meat
before smoky smudge
of peat, pried from muskeg,
remember sugary brown tang
on winter’s reach
into newspaper folds
for a dry chew of spring

no Maple tree syrup
could alleviate
swell of spit to gum
like thoughts of rolling boil
foaming over a month’s worth
of wrinkled remembrance
honoring dear taste of tapped wisdom.

Tags: Native Culture, Poems //