for the Water Protectors
Scientists have discovered seven new planets
light years above North Dakota. & everyone
who wanted to move to Canada
after the election
jokes about the grass being greener in space
& fantasizes about scuba diving in
alien oceans, while indigenous people
are arrested on their own lands
for protecting their waters from
blackening like the sky. Burning
tipis is not a sign of forgetting,
but release. Even the astronaut,
free from gravity, comes from this
earth
that birthed our stories, bodies,
songs & thoughts –all things that can be lost
in space; in time; in disregard;
in a shuttle
sent to discover a new site for second homes or
resort hotels near the sweet scent of the polka dot trees
& the peek-a-boo crabs that whistle when it rains. Maybe
there are already whole societies built on a history
we have yet to discover.
Isn’t that thrilling?
There is a new solar system out there
with room enough for us, all
while the police invade,
while the worlds turn, while lawyers are briefed, and engineers
dream of their fingerprints flying towards a younger star.
New & old moons raise tides & fists, and the campgrounds burn & burn
away: a scorching memory of what they tried to save.
Scientists have discovered seven new planets
light years above North Dakota. & everyone
who wanted to move to Canada
after the election
jokes about the grass being greener in space
& fantasizes about scuba diving in
alien oceans, while indigenous people
are arrested on their own lands
for protecting their waters from
blackening like the sky. Burning
tipis is not a sign of forgetting,
but release. Even the astronaut,
free from gravity, comes from this
earth
that birthed our stories, bodies,
songs & thoughts –all things that can be lost
in space; in time; in disregard;
in a shuttle
sent to discover a new site for second homes or
resort hotels near the sweet scent of the polka dot trees
& the peek-a-boo crabs that whistle when it rains. Maybe
there are already whole societies built on a history
we have yet to discover.
Isn’t that thrilling?
There is a new solar system out there
with room enough for us, all
while the police invade,
while the worlds turn, while lawyers are briefed, and engineers
dream of their fingerprints flying towards a younger star.
New & old moons raise tides & fists, and the campgrounds burn & burn
away: a scorching memory of what they tried to save.
Reed Adair Bobroff (Navajo) is a poet, playwright, and performer from Albuquerque, NM. His work has been featured in The Breakbeat Poets anthology, Indian Country Today, and on HBO. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Theater Studies and currently researches writing therapy in indigenous communities.
