Kistâpawatâw (S/he washes clothing)

Our wrangler arrived
A controversial purchase
To ever hunger
For white curved perfection
Made broken
To feed corporate gluttons?
Or a tool
We can understand and repair?

I like the laundry now
Each clothe a world
Not a “load”
I see the water grey
Still good for green
A lunchtime moment
A ceremony
A concert
A learning

I listen
To all those ladies
On all those rivers
Over melted snow
Washing letters*
Saving lives
Teaching young ones
Who turned tools
Into music**
Your work into community
Your labour into gift
Our GDP
“too advanced” to measure.

Pehiw – Wandering 2022

*There is a story of my Great –great grandmother Eleanor Garneau washing the letter from Riel as the police came to look for evidence to arrest the men of the community.

** My grandmother Mary Dale played the washboard in her jug band.