Weight of a Paper Warrior

A Spirit Warrior, drawn by one of the boys in Club Ki'l (Kuh-luh) afterschool clubs I've been guest presenting at here in Anchorage.

Weight of a Paper Warrior

I sit on the carpeted classroom floor
encircled
Tlingit, Haida, Aleut, Yup'ik, Inupiaq, Athabascan
city boys
I wear my Raven qaspeq
hand sewn with love by a Yup'ik friend

they close their eyes
the walls around us, and that separate
fall away
my words carry them back in time
to when they were warriors

when they fought for what they believed
to protect their families, their people
to survive

this warrior is still there, I say

in you

listen to him

these were his

a stone knife, an arrowhead, a rabbit bone charm
travel --- small hand to small hand around the circle
for some cool trinkets, for others
a weight to each I will never know

the circle breaks and they lie on sheets
of white butcher paper, draw Crayola silhouettes
then arm and illustrate 

one boy tells me:
my spirit warrior's knife 
was different and sharper
and
he said he will always 
be there when I am scared

another asks:
what did your spirit warrior
look like?

this little boy's question lingers and
I am suddenly naked



[Poem #29 for National Poetry month! www.donrearden.com  ]

Tundra Tapeworm

Know what river this is? If so. You're infected.

like a tapeworm
these rivers attach
themselves to your insides

when you can peer out
from your exit row
at 20,000 feet and know
one bend from the next

you are infected

these twists and turns
burned into your brain
the arteries and veins
of your life

there is no cure
for thismalady
no stick to wrap the worm
and twist it from your guts
a half turn a day forever





[Day 11 of my poem a day marathon for National Poetry month.]