Peacewalking two

Kind Hearted Eagle invited us
to walk across Canada in 2003
for youth suicide prevention
from Nanaimo to distant Ottawa


We took turns walking the roads
as great big trucks roared by
sending roadside dust everywhere
moose appeared at morning prayer

only the traditional sweat lodge
pulled us we carried the dead
across the land they cried out
this was of a walk of soul force

we were young and old all at once
these native indigenous people
taught us the beauty of themselves
we were the savages disconnected

my husband's people were once native
although he is as white as the sky
and I am an orphan from the old tribe
the ancient tribe of celtic warriors

My heart goes out to them as I hear
the stories of what genocide can do
this walk much harder than any before
for the ones who killed themselves