Abigail Chabitnoy
Two-thirds of the country is in drought. The waters have all gone walking.
Nunakuarluni. Take a hike.
When white peaks crested the rolling hills behind our house
I knew it was time.
We understand since we are children waves break waves travel waves do the wave. Did the wave make it across the room? Did the people who started it move across the room?
Cause of death: traumatized. Cause of death: bad heart. Cause of death: exposure.1
(I heard it was an accident. In the end. In the breakers. There was no boat when they told it.)
I took my brother and sister and some others out the back door. The calm was not and the neatly kept lawn was not.
The sleeper wave was not.
Too many teeth I saw too late. The wave would not be dove under.
It turned snow, wet and heaving and we
were already running.
*
After, a field. I could hear every dead thing.
How do we behave in the field?
They asked for a story, the ones we'd have to leave behind. Swallowed by the hoary mouth.
Never ignore what someone tells you in a dream, once the women said.
You are trying to remember what someone said
who is dead.
Quliyangua’uciikamken. — I will tell you a story.
Laam’paaq kuarsgu.