Spaces between our fingers

I want to write
a DPR#%&*

like them men

who sang with the Ancestors**

a ballad

of burecratic bullshit

discordant dystopias

numbers of fish

dead students

hate crimes

economic crimes

strategic plans

forests of despair/disappear

cabinet room

locked in bedroom

need to make room

I can measure everything!

Twist-transform-transmute

until it sings to me

count the caribou

enumerate machines

tally bones.

must toil

to redeem.....

but how to weave

when looms destroyed

and only hands remain?

hunters of impossible futures

taught only S E L F

we must practice harmonies

hidden in the spaces between our fingers.

Akihcikewin Maskwa (Data Bear) Preparing 2024

*Departmental Results Reports - Canada.ca I have written content for many of these reports and there are historical versions written with input of my Ancestors and about my Ancestors. 

**Jeremy Dutcher an Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) member of the Tobique First Nation in North-West New Brunswick, released Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa in 2018. This album is a dialogue with the Ancestors.

Aysanabee is an Oji-Creewhose debut album Watin was named for his grandfather and features several recordings with him on the album.