seven
I feel the groan of a great fish
as she struggles to part the sea between us. I call out to her
in a language I never learned.
She swam all night. Light
from Polaris, the One Star, leads her on and on as I wait for her on the beach.
The tug of recognition, the pull
of every moon set or rise grows in my bones.
Grains of sleep from my eyes tumble
into the sea, mix with tears
shed a million years before
by a grandmother who imagined me,
blessed my coming.
I meet seven women coming
toward me. Some are still crying
as they walk to the sea from the Mountain.
They join seven women who suffered
behind me. The year is turning soon, so we ask
forgiveness, Alnôbaiwi, as our ancestors did:
anhaldam mawi kassipalilawalan.*
So it is among us.
So it has always been.
So it will be.
* forgive me if I have wronged you; Abenaki traditional “apology”
Statement about Seven:
As an Abenaki woman, I am acutely sensitive to the connections between seven generations on either side of me. I am aware of the grandmothers and other female relatives who have made a place for me and of my responsibility to the next seven generations of women. This awareness makes me careful and purposeful. It also gives me the resilience to carry on in times of distress. The legacy of being both thankful and remorseful comes to the flood at the new year, when we are led to apologize in case a wrong has been ignored or may have been innocently unknown.
Poem note: The One Star is Polaris, our guide. Mountain refers to our sacred mountain, Mt Katahdin.
Carol Willette Bachofner, Abenaki, is an award winning poet, memoirist, photographer, and watercolorist. She served as Poet Laureate of Rockland from 2012 -2016. Carol is the author of 7 books of poetry, most recently Test Pattern, a Fantod of Prose Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2018). She is at work on a mixed genre memoir, A Life Beset With Words (working title).
Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, such as Prairie Schooner, The Connecticut Review, The Comstock Review, Cream City Review, as well as in the anthology, Dawnland Voices, An Anthology of Writings from Indigenous New England (University of Nebraska Press, 2013).
