Dream Your Street To Life
by Ali Cobby Eckermann
An ode to “Ideal Crowded Streets” from Harvest Lingo by Lionel Fogarty.
Guest-edited by Mykaela Saunders, the Odes series invites six First Nations poets to write an Ode to another’s poem.
the birth of every city is a laneway
and streets are the life line of child birth
each dawn arousing from the rested empty nights.
behold here come the artisans of every economy and caste
the impression of the modern architecture
overshadows neighbourhoods loved by craft.
here the poor celebrate their vast richness
the ornate song and dance festivals colour the air
breathe the wisdom of what once was.
roadways build on the bones of heritage
hidden behind concrete plinths as division
displaying a comfortable unneeded wealth.
all leaders of equity fail streetwise
as a truckload of knowledge holders rumbles past
to a happiness unforseen by facades of filth.
momentum gathers in food halls along footpaths
feed all of us from these cultural plates
sip on the mosaic design from broken to beauty.
flow down the street veins to access
all the ideals of inclusion are inscribed here
peer lovingly into the heart of every shrine.
a snapshot of street life is inclusive
the enormity of insight on every awning
so dream your ideal crowded street to life.
Ali Cobby Eckermann is a Yankunytjatjara poet whose first collection little bit long time was written in the desert in 2009. Ali has been blessed by her writings receiving much recognition, being the first Aboriginal Australian writer to attend the International Writing Program in Iowa in 2014 and in 2017 receiving a Windham Campbell Award for Poetry from Yale University. Ali advocates for each of us to know the value of our story and stand proudly within.