Umbel & Panicle
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Picture

Weave

expand

transform

she gathers the ivigaaq

blade by blade

talking to the long ones

leaving the short ones

flashes

of her other skin

swim near her

the clocks

work shoes

mingle masks

she learned to dance

in conference rooms

future movements

in artificial spaces

far away

here

now

on the tundra

her masks

consumed

nearby

beach fire

she sang alight

here

now

as she gathers

ivigaaq

the blades want to hear

about the sound

of her heels on concrete

they ask

how animals cross

through

metal

the long ones stretch out

hoping she will pick them

the short blades

listen

she has an

ivigaaq design song

ready

to sing

yet the blades

of all lengths

yearn to hear

more stories

of the plastic world

inquisitive ivigaaq

want to know

want to hold

all of her parts

together

tight
quŋulliq
 
expands in seal oil
 
remembers when the great-great
 
sat at the same spot
 
leaving some to sing songs into the earth
 
now
 
the song has shifted
 
like the wind
 
changed direction
 
the great-great granddaughter
 
repeats a motion
 
strains to hear a whisper
 
going between the new shoots
 
a
 
break trance
 
going back one thousand years
 
moment
 
these roots
 
remember
 
deep
taqalukisaksraq
 
let me lay in a field of you
 
pretend I am asleep
 
taqalukisaksraq
 
let me sing a song to you
 
a transformation song
 
taqalukisaksraq
 
maybe from the corner of my eye
 
(as my other eye dances with a cloud)
 
maybe you will trust me
 
like you trusted my great-great-great
 
we have the same name
 
taqalukisaksraq
 
I am my Ancestor
 
returned
 
fly up
 
up
 
my eyes are soft
 
nearby
 
taqalukisaksraq
 
take flight

Allison Akootchook Warden is an Iñupiaq poet who lives in Anchorage, Alaska.  She is a creative writing alumna of the Djerassi Resident Artist Program.  Her book of twitter poems, "TAIMANISAAQ/AKKUPAK (long long time ago/right now)" was published by the Anchorage Museum in May 2017.  
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