when...

when my grandchildren ask

'what was it like when you could drink from the skeena?'

I'll have to tell them how the sun felt
and that sweet balsam breeze
and how drinking that water
was a prayer of belonging - of worship

and my heart will be heavy when they ask

'what did you do, when all that happened,
the agreements, and the pipelines, and the tankers,
when it all started...'

and i'll tell them about giving $5 dollars to help people organize for talks
and i'll tell them about facebook, sharing news articles, and poems
and i'll tell them about feeling too busy at school, and gardening, and hunting
and i'll tell them it was all so overwhelming

and i'm scared that they'll ask

'why did that stop you, didn't you know?'

'we wanted to drink from the rivers
to be able to swim'

'we wanted to live as if we belong, to eat salmon
we heard they use to spawn here'