WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?

to set a trap

catch air

lightning waasamowin

the word erotica

dear cosmo-union,

whyd i ever whyd i ever

it’s nearly february

b-12 deficient

all these notes are text

little lights above the dash

red yellow

buddy holly true love ways

jiibay jiibay

jiibay

dispatch dispatch

i’d like to re-name this poem i’m tired

it starts with it can stop there

an endless w i t h d r a w a l

a list of desires in august

nimaw nimaw gii-nimaw miinaawaa

only allowed to nagamo to sing beside

with this thread i thee

i thee see you

and turn my face from it

artifacts of dire -- no

gaawiin ahaw

this is a story about kinship

whatever we have been given, given away

into darkness alive with eyes,

a sliver of light

and the day was the same the universe and its desires

ahaw

mii iw, mii iw, mii sa iw

Nicole Wallace is a poet, musician, and Managing Director of The Poetry Project. She is a part of the Anishinaabeg hand drumming group Nishnaabekwewag Negamonid and a member of the Indigenous Womxns Collective NYC. Her first chapbook, WAASAMOWIN, is forthcoming from IMP, December 2018. Originally from Gakaabikaang, located in what is currently called Minnesota, she is a descendent of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe).