You are

​You are
 
We are the humans
 
superior to other life forms
 
which lack the ability to contemplate their worth?
 
Consider a rock.
 
Just a bunch of molecules  
 
seemingly content to just be
 
for as long as they care to visit each other.
 
In the Tlingit village of Hoonah
 
on Chichagof Island
 
Christians destroyed the history books
 
contained in the Totem poles
 
taped shut the lips of children speaking their native tongue.
 
Fire arrived in 1944
 
Houses were replaced with prefabs laid out to
 
mimic the nuclear family disconnection and block the
 
guidance of the elders.
 
Still, visitors drop in staying as long as they stay.
 
Tlingits,  fish,  animals  and vegetation
 
seem unimpressed by white man time.
 
Seasons visit dictating the cycles of life and death.
 
Before the white man they did not know only Jesus and his God were
 
sacred.


They believed all of creation was sacred.
 
Community was sacred.


Gratitude was sacred.
 
The wisdom of the elders was sacred.
 
Christians came to bring Jesus
 
to wipe out all that Jesus taught was sacred.
 
No longer connected to Mother Earth
 
No longer sacred
 
No longer connected to each other
 
they struggled to find their lost selves.
 
Elder David said
 
Listen to the wind.
 
Listen to the rocks.
 
Listen to the streams.
 
Listen to the fish.
 
Listed to the bears.
 
Listen to the ancestors buried with the ashes of the Totems,
 
Buried with the ashes of the communal homes.

Listen
 
The wind carries the molecules which hold the knowledge of God
 
The wind whispers
 
            You are.
 
            You are
 
             You are.
 
Written May 3, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org