Humming

by Tony Birch

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An Ode to ‘Walgajunmanha All Time’ by Charmaine Papertalk Green.

 Guest-edited by Mykaela Saunders, the Odes series invites six First Nations poets to write an Ode to another’s poem.

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the poet marks the page
a dot, circles, a black mark
a letter speaks, a word sounds
lines vibrate with energy 

this woman is a force
a threat to all you lay
before her, before us
she is the warrior we need 

C.P.G. – once did they call her ‘poetess’?
in school did they call her
‘diligent’? ‘well-behaved’?
she called back to the deaf & blind 

I am not your pet, your project
I am not a threat, your enemy
only I can save you, only if, only if you
read, listen, think, respect 

for once, be humble

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Tony Birch is a Fitzroy Blak, in honour of she who brought us into being, Destiny Deacon.

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