“Duration of the Land”

 As part of my explorations of the space of experiential research and policy making I trying different ways to respond to academic text. This poem is part of a series that is responding to ""Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination" by Mark Rifkin.

“Duration of the Land”: Chp 2 

“Stained by colonialism” *
Dirty rags
On bodies that remember
Who transverse stars
But breathe

The lands that sustain
The time of rocks
The wisdom of rivers

Held immobile

Cause they can’t see
When we skim waves
Here/there/tomorrow
Inheritances/relations

All the same water.

Nipon Kona W 24

* Pg 75 Dale Turner