Dream of the Land-Based Future
Service took the place of romance
in the land-based future that I dreamt as past
There on grassy bluffs above great marshes rivers prairies
we felt related to hawks most of all
we made hawk indulgences metaphors
If we believed in anything we could not see we held dear
the return of hawks hawks meant mice mice meant herds
A man’s seriousness his falcon-like summary of what he saw engaged me deeply
Love we allowed as long as we remained the hands of the earth
as long as every movement was for earth and our work
so if our love did not matter to a future we refrained
refraining held its own energy power of inertia it burned
Side by side for years we gazed and never touched it wasn’t hard
my yearning I gave over to something greater
it enlarged then and made me shy
to look on his long fingers his brown neck his ruff of stubble his stained shirt and long thighs
At times we’d match our eyes we’d pause to nod acknowledge love
so it fueled work so hard to do so needed beyond us somewhere
No one told us do this we all agreed without rules
we were the kind who survived to live those times
We opened dams long-before dismantled every human structure save one
We planned for the sake of land returning we surveyed daily
we worked the land with our ideas and gathered most minute understandings to mull
We were religious but not god-minded in retreat to seek more perfect understanding
We stood on overlooks and awaited changes in the water grass bluffs
we awaited the animals yearned for them most of all
there were no song birds hawks were hope of herds
Hawk-named drones we used in our constant survey
When at last we learned herds were headed our way
we planned a kind of Holy Day
We maintained one human place a huge arena where we spoke as a group
as those who thought not leaders just reporters information sources
we worked in groups to produce our words as solemn or raucous as poems but not art
we never spoke of it as anything but science and were humbled when
our words elated everyone assembled each year
We prepared for the crowd to come to see the herds pass
teams made of sisters arrived to clean and we cleaned with them
the patterns and rhythms we made we projected a drone’s view to share
so beautiful and so pleasing ecstatic moment we fell into
synchronous and fluid
Into my work flashed another yearning for a sister a mother a someone woman
who might let me speak of the man and love who let me lean to her
I could see her dark hair and serious kind face she felt warm next to me most dear
She and the man his scent and her sensation I would not keep
These I gave to the dust cloth the thousand rusted seats
the thunder of the world to come
Territory 73 Mph This is a complexity the BIA the DNR no one can explain to me Right-of-way territory reduced by lines on a highway ceded lands they took I take photos so I can relate to place blue galaxy my eye in my hand protected otter-skinned box my precious perceptive of field—reed—road—rise—fire in weeds controlled burn grubbed out windbreak living fence red willow—dogwood—kinnikinnick at 73 mph it is all ours again ancestors always present in the past a few grandfathers back dog sled mail carrier along this track I-94 east or west ottertail county wildlife in windbreaks highway right-of-way way home way back way to know the world as a girl window cranked world spun out circles back same as train tricks the eye you fly land stands still Hwy 210 wahpeton to fergus falls creature-mapped birds of previous years muskrat—kit fox— eagle—wheat ears— what happened to the wheat ears those dapper swirls at road’s edge? they were here just a year ago for fifty years fifty winters whirl by cell eye stills captures grass silver glass contrast fallow fold furrow black blue white way home way back way to know the world at 73 mph highest resolution point and tap magic in that app tags the image dalton tags battle lake who battled there? ancestors always present in the past pressed pillager band pressed dakota we’ve been again defied defiled by a march power towers concern the DNR HELICOPTERS AT WORK DO NOT LOOK UP FLASHES AND LOUD BOOMS POSSIBLE DO NOT STOP impossible not to gawk great river energy ottertail power swans on nest—wheel of pelicans—little green heron wind in towers wind power we all wanted wind wanted transit but not trains wanted wind but not towers metal faintly reflective glare-proofed to vague gray now lavender hand holding monsters miles and miles and miles lines violent against a sky we thought was ours what we had left of ours my hand-eye weapon blind aim I take you take you back way back way home right-of-way
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Heid E. Erdrich is the author of seven collections of poetry. Her writing has won fellowships and awards from the National Poetry Series, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Bush Foundation, Loft Literary Center, First People’s Fund, and other honors. She has twice won a Minnesota Book Award for poetry. Heid edited the 2018 anthology New Poets of Native Nations from Graywolf Press. Her forthcoming poetry collection Little Big Bully will appear this fall from Penguin. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain.