What's Your Shadow Like?

My shadow is a shape-shifting,

Steady presence  

Sometimes when we’re out together,  

She climbs the roadside fence  

Sometime she slinks behind me,  

Curled up like a ball  

Sometimes it looks like she’s on stilts  

With such long legs and tall  

My shadow likes to be in front  

And lead the way 

She likes to be included, 

Not disappear into the shade  

She likes to go for walks  

In the park and by the sea 

She likes to hold hands  

And tries to kiss  

The man beside of me 

She likes when she  

Has flowers in her hair 

And that the purse she carries  

Is as light as air 

She likes to dance and skip  

And sometimes stomp her feet 

She likes the sunshine  

And she likes me 

And I think that's really neat  

Frances

Frances is a free one, 

Full of brilliant light 

She prances barefoot, 

Dances  

With beauty and delight  

When her passionate eyes  

Glance beneath  

The conifer's branches - 

Its needles nesting  

In the shape of love; 

Papayas, paper, droplets of dew 

Also enchant her 

Fill her breath with Yes! 

Her heart, with gratitude; 

With a twinkle in her eyes, 

She celebrates Creation 

In tune with its symphony, 

Enhancing situations 

Is she a dazzling goddess 

In emerald and aquamarine? 

If you've ever heard her smile, 

Chances are  

You know just what I mean

The Story of This Land - Told by One In Moccasins

We welcomed you into our circles 

You married us for your gain 

We taught you our ways and our customs 

You deemed savage to your peril and shame 

We had yellow knives and hunted bison 

On the Manitoba plain 

The Songhees and the tundra 

Were our ancestors' domains 

We drank from the Okanagan, 

Fished Chinook off Ucluelet's shore 

These waters were places of plenty 

But not so anymore  

We traversed Malahat and Tsawwassen 

Without sirens or delays 

We paddled our own canoes 

Before the white man came  

You gifted us with blankets 

Laden with infection - 

The red death, red plague - 

We graciously accepted  

You tried to take our culture 

And force your 'civilized' ways 

We were close-knit like Cowichans 

Now unravelling and frayed 

We wanted relationship  

You turned the other way         

The earth cries out for justice 

For all the needless graves  

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Inspired by A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada by John Ralston Saul, and what I learned through participating in The Blanket Exercise, a teaching tool about the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.