I Am From

I am from the town and valley called Swan River,

From the vast prairie wheatfields and the dark and desolate winters.

I am from the house on Westwind road,

A mixture of community like an evolving tribe.

I am from the creation of Bannock, and deer meat stew.

I am from Friday night hockey games and “giver, giver swan river,”

From lunch runs to timmies and the imagination of Waterhaven.

I am from the whispers of rumours and actions of intolerance,

From true-blue conservatism and hooked and rotted roots.

I’m from the homeland of the Metis nation,

And the product of colonialism.

I am from longing evermore and constant isolation and the feeling of indifference in the

pursuit of truth,

From faulty nostalgia and imagination and make-believe.

From my beginning until my end.