from Aednan [X]

Vass Valley. Fall 1920
(Aslat the dead)

You left me 
on the Swede’s farm

alone and wrapped
in my large kolt

-

I didn’t stay there

-

One fall and one winter
we cried together
Then you joined

the herd and
left
As for me I spread
my kolt into wings
and flew away

blood drained 
from my body and
vanished

-

I couldn’t stay

Where I had fallen
never to rise
again

-

Did you feel me Father

blowing across the sea

Didn’t you hear me

Among the sea birds
when you arrived 
with your summer-fattened
reindeer

-

I was the lone
strand from the reindeer’s coat
gliding across the surface of the sea

in the bay by
the reindeer’s swimming spot

-

And the pretty hill
in the fall-summer sun

Where the herd 
had to find its own way
down the rocks

Until thick fog rolled in

And it was
impossible to see
the pitch of the slope

-

I was the forest 
thickening

around the great
forest way
hewn 
in olden times

-

Where your lead reindeer
cleaned its horns

Did you feel it Mother
in your hand

that long while you spent
milking the tame cow
who then disappeared
among the trees

-

To search for lichen
and mushrooms and lick
urine from the ground

-

I was the weight
in the stone you brought
back from the coast

to place on 
my grave

One stone each summer

you carry home
to the winterland
Nila and you

-

Mother you caress
that scar on my
brother’s forehead
as though it were a
whisper from me

-

Because I once
threw a wooden log 
at him

that hit right there

Nila when I fell

-

You continued
to treat me
the same

as though I
hadn’t changed

-

The same old
slow smile
while my head quietly
wanted to roll back
into place

deep between my shoulders

Nila did you feel that
I was the movement
under the boat

in the mountain lake where
Mother and you
spread the nets

-

Did you catch
my gaze
in the eye of the storm

-

I stood on a branch
my legs were like 
sticks
When the wind bent
back the yellowing
leaves

I saw strange mountains

with roaring rivers

-

And I flew over
the boat and called
to you:

There will be rain
there will be rain