Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 28

SPRING SUMMER
2017
CANADA
AB 1905
WILD ROSE COUNTRY
A LETTER
HOME
BY MOE CLARK
A multi-disciplinary Métis artist, Moe is a looping pedal
mistress, spoken word poet, educator, artistic producer,
public speaker and activist. This nomadic songbird is based
in Alberta, but her stories and her messages, which can be
appreciated at moeclark.ca, convey universal truths.
Alberta, you know the soles of my feet
like the roots of evergreen trees growing
lush on the bust of your Rocky Mountain range
and between the cracks of your fossilized toes
Alberta, you remember the night
northern lights danced in Milky Way skies
and stars spilled from Big Dipper’s spoon
to woo sleeping prairie fields the dark concealed
Alberta, you reveal pictograph daydreams
the Writing-on-Stone of songs once sung
from tongues of buffalo hunters who revered
the sacred beasts for bringing
prosperity and survival to tribes
who called Áísínai’pi home
Alberta, we feast on the shape of your sacrifice
open heart surgery performed by melting glacial giants
from whose exposed palms bleed
the great Athabasca and Bow
lucid blue veins both calm and raging
like mothers who never stop feeding their children
even when full
26 six star magazine
Somehow, despite all attempts
to divide and conquer your body
to name parts of you Calgary or Edmonton
Banff or Black Diamond
Fort McMurray or Lac Ste. Anne
your wildness will always be infinite
Your mountain ranges are breathtaking
and worth straddling the tips of
your Chinook winds are ancient in their stories
so worth being heard
Alberta, don’t ever stop calling me daughter
and I will never stop calling you home.