Students Career Cruising on computers
colleague Cory climbs a chair
power pointing out professions
pipe layers, peace makers, priests
while I take tobacco from a package
four cigarettes wrapped in polka dot bundle
trying to take on tradition
for elders as they share their stories
with students as they listen
Wayne Goodwill under the cowboy hat
asks the kids how old they think he is
a girl says forty-eight
Goodwill chuckles, seventy-one, he says
Chief Mike Starr shakes my hand
after his interview with the boys
that was pretty intense, he says
good questions too
follow my Mukluk footsteps
across the tracks Trudine calls
Hey Mrs. Koops
and I trot back to her doorstep
You sure were walking by fast,she says
I said to Roy, look at Sheena go by
so fast, so stuckup
I break a smile
and my breathing slows
in this house of healing where laughter
is also prayer alongside mourning
the death of a sister
her picture in white wedding satin
and another in the hospital on life support
they show me
how much farther
I must walk
to understand long suffering
I just read/ ate in your last three posts and what can I say but smile, smile, smile.
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