MARIE ANNHARTE BAKER: THREE POEMS

Forget Grandmother

Woke up one morning to forget new status as grandmother

cognizant barely I am a woman of nature listen up now girl

nature is saying I understand everything I forgot grandmother

iffy culture shows me not to be too certain over not knowing

what to do each morning the quick little steps warn me I must

pretend grandmother she asks again “coo coo, where are you”

pays to answer or she might color a design on me with marker

like she did yesterday when I accidently posed as a toy or doll

Rev Me Up Double Take

In Nicaragua, a woman revolutionary celebrates

with her cadres. One of them might notice her

dark colour. Ask her if she has been to the beach.

It is a subversive way to ask if she is an Indian.

Stories told about solidarity & racism in Nicaragua

divulge greater quandary of how colour and class mix.

Woman thinks she must be Inca. Let’s hope she is that.

She confesses she has many resemblances to one.

Cuna might be another possible rival ancestry.

For sure Cuna because she is so like a friend I know

who is genuine San Blas Cuna when dressed in regalia.

It is not always the convincing evidence we need.

Someone at work told her she has the hands of

a potter. Generations sculpted those hands. Proof.

Five hundred years have faded our recollections

of who we are. In 1992, we trade past glimpses.

I remember I am a Mohican queen not half

wit half baked half hearted descendant but one

total regal caste in blood bones bare chested

Indigena who paddled out to check her weir.

Never precious pocahontas or Matoaka waiting

for discovery in original Tsenacomaco land.

Takes five centuries for a resurgence take back

ancestral dreamtime before us forgotten women

use imperialist nostalgia to reconnect the power:

resistance revitalization regeneration revolt

Taken for granted a woman juggles identities

--poet, revolutionary, Indian, mother, daughter

wife, ex-wife, grandmother & cultural worker--

I catch a peek of who I am when she talks.

Indigenous Verse Ability

Right off, ingenious character needs to apply

any part-time genius res identity on or off

assimilated come lately fork off tongues hack

Right on, dress accordingly use convenient

scalp wig or beaver hat trap appendage bag

reach for medicines label holistic holocaustic

Always, fuk wid Indin expert tease please

even if disabled walk with crutch is not even

Never, forget internal voice represents eternal

Injunaity croak sing songs of constant repetition

Remember, all ancestors big small fat lazy do-gooders

disguised helping professionals vary alarm sounding

Forget, ancestry breeds contempt for lesser bestials

why curse the drumstick butterballed to death apart

Come to it, pretend to copy another native vernacular

open the new age um biblical encyclopedia manual

Come off it, dust off the tonsil or operational vacancy

veer forward given our future is likely double doubt

Grab, bundle get a move on after all nomadism calls

visit worlds not on the internet or don’t shop around

not always about financial welfare though it helps

Let go, recognition reputation respite any reservations

linguistic liars documentaries what takes honest breath

Laugh it up, not everyday is a good day to genocide

not easy to chortle word choice snicker sounds cute

gross indigenous digs gross out counter digital return

Laugh it off, easy enough to do if a feather is stuck

unusual place not tickly by any standard of remorse

diversify humour learn to laugh at uncomplimentary

  

http://www.stony-hill-madison.com/servlet/the-153/Panama-Cuna-Kuna-Indian/Detail

http://www.vianica.com/activity/36/ancient-footprints-of-acahualinca
http://www.nald.ca/CLR/chikiken/page23.ht

Marie Annharte Baker is the author of Exercises in Lip Pointing, New Star Books, Vancouver

A review of Exercises in Lip Pointing by Reg Johanson:
http://www.rainreview.net/rain-010107.html