is this decolonial love, leanne?

By Samantha Martin-Bird

in the room next to us there’s
               ministers
               senators
               commissioners
               policy experts
               decision makers and
               other people that I’m sure are
 
super important
 
I should be in there
shaking hands
making small talk
talking about our people and policy
 
instead
I’m just around the corner
sitting on an oversized hotel armchair
looking at him
our brown eyes transfixed
 
               he talks way too much
               but in a nervous and cute sort of way
 
               he’s got a kid
               he barely sees
 
               can’t believe my mother is white
               while his skin is whiter than mine
 
               jokes about all the hard things
               the dark things
 
that night
gitxsan guy sticks his tongue down my throat
holds my hands above my head
explores every inch of my skin
 
says he’s jealous he’s not as
brown as me
 
tells me to stop crushing on
white guys
says they’ll never understand

---

ciimaan

By Samantha Martin-Bird

zhagaanash
               reads jordan peterson
               works in mining
               supports the ring of fire
 
even so
 
he rivals the physique of
greco-roman deities
               strong like cedar
               white like wiigwaas
               voice deep as the canyon we hike
 
i take him to the lake
he cuts the water with
               strong strokes
               steady hands
               shirtless body
 
i teach him ojibwe
he utters nouns and verbs
               ciimaan
               bimishkaa
               zaaga'igan          
 
his tongue
               curls easily over
               elongated vowels
my tongue
               rolls eagerly over
               his
 
zhagaanash
               listens to jocko’s podcast
               votes conservative
               subscribes to the toronto sun
 
even so
 
he lives elsewhere
               leaves tomorrow
               won’t return  
 
so
 
come colonizer
fill my
canoe

---

Samantha Martin-Bird is a citizen of Peguis First Nation in Treaty One Territory currently writing poetry from the north shores of Lake Superior in Thunder Bay. She was a 2021 winner of the Indigenous Voices Awards and was shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s Open Season award in 2022. Her work has appeared in Contemporary Verse 2, Room, The Puritan, Canthius, The Hopper, filling Station, the Ontario Native Women’s Association annual poetry book, and the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) 2022 program.