40 Feet from Nowhere

Divya Victor

^{What does it mean to go nowhere? Where is “nowhere”? It has been used as a deterrent to us, as children, that we would disappear if …}
^{—Joshua Whitehead, in “On Indigenous Joy and Futurisms: The Affects of our Literatures,”}^{The Capilano Review}

^{What is the relation of the dead to what has not yet happened, to the future? All the future is the construction in which their “imagination” is engaged.}
^{—John Berger, “On the Economy of the Dead”}

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
                                       “dark figures set against”
We will ferry you
                                       “white of the snowfield”
little bird, beta, chandra
                                       “they walked amid vast”
from the pretend fence
                                       “farm fields & snowdrifts”
where you laid down
                                       “in the black of”
your pulse, nodded quiet
     ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
     ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
     ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
     ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
its thundering, red traffic
                                       “an almost moonless night”
In our tongues we
                                       “wrapped in a blanket”
will pack more names
                                       “diapers, baby wipes, mittens”
for the moon than
                                       “& two toy cars”
any sky could carry
                                        “one red, one white”