Ardell Polus-Bombay

e e e S

My cousins called me apple,

said my green eyes were like go lights
flashing at the good looking drummers.
They told me mooniaquay were loose.
Indian women are modest,

so I lowered my eyes and spent

the next ten years wandering,

wishing for shiny black braids.

I came home and found my mother
praying to Jesus in Ojibway,

lying in the dingy bedroom

the chemo’s venom in her veins,

the light strained through the drapes
giving her face a pale green tinge.

I knew the cancer leech

was bloated with Mama’s red blood.
Daddy started burning her things
before she was dead; the fire was small.

At thirty, I sat on the shoulders
of Bear Butte watching the storm
roll closer across the open plains.
With every lightning strike

I cried for my grandfather,
offering tobacco as each foot
touched down beside me,

the drum in my chest beating.

In this black light I knew

the colour of my skin.

*Sister Dodo=Mom always talked about Sister Dondot..I thought it was
“Dodo”. As well as being an extinct bird species, dodo also means “teat”
in Ojibway.

* Apache Pass=Famous section of lower third avenue in Prince Rupert.
*Mooniaquay=White woman,

*Bear Butte=Ceremonial fasting grounds, S. Dakota.

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