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It is June, heart-berry moon,

not that I have any right

to the old story

of the healing ways of Ode’imin,

the wisdoms of Nookomis,

except to learn,

to be one who sits in the circle,

not at its center,

to hear the storyteller.

 

European American born,

I listen to new strawberry wisdom –

 

We who have been takers

can no longer reach out and grab

whatever we want,

but, bending very low,

find and pick what heals us all.

 

And things most precious

will be brief.

They come silently

and, no matter how busy we are,

and we are a busy people,

they must be tasted

now, in the season they are ripe.

 

And this, too, perhaps,

we learn --

to call summer by our neighbors’ names –

not July and August, but

miskomini-giizis,

red-raspberry moon and

miin(ikaa)-giizis, blueberry moon,

 

for days are best lived

not under the names of conquerors

but by fruit of the spirit.

-Maren Tirabassi 

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