you draw winter near
with gnathic aptitude
the lockjaw of late autumn
startled shut, rivers grow covers
smothered, lifeblood slows in the veins
beavers in home-grown velour
regal at your bedside
thick with need, claw through
crusts thick as wrists
to water running, ebbing, still
Anishinabek, ziibi
weave coexistence through one another
one cluster of cells in skin and in pine
a treaty unkept is a scissor through time
serpentine promises, slippery as moss stones
and yet
pickerel spawn upstream in springtime
ice floes toboggan lake-side, young ones
gorge, feast on your run-off
ensorcelled by codependence
grandfather stones planed smooth
