For Little Feather
By Joergen Ostensen
10.1.19
This poem is about a water protector, named Michael Giron aka Little Feather, who was jailed without trial following his involvement in the protests at Standing Rock. He was freed on September 25th. Red Fawn Fallis and Michael Markus aka Rattler are among others similarly being held in cages as political prisoners in the United States.
On the morning I heard that you were free
A smile spread across my face
As I saw a picture of you in sunshine
Returned now to the world
Of wind and rivers and sky and stars
The world you love so much
So very, very much that you risked everything
By standing in the way of the black snake
Fighting back against their power
The power of M16's and tear gas
Of water hoses blasting a million icicles onto the razor wire
In the videos I watched in the safety of home
The safety of being 17
The safety of my skin
The safety of not being there with you
As you and so many beautiful people
Stood in the way
Of the power held in the centuries of oppression
Under those precious North Dakota skies
On the banks of a river that brings life to millions.
On the morning I heard that you were free
I thought about reading your name
On my cell phone for the first time
How I wanted to smash history and the president and the walls of the prison where you were caged
I thought about writing your name in my notebook
So you wouldn't be lost to me in the invisibility cloak they are using to hide you from our consciousness
I thought about spray painting FREE LITTLE FEATHER
On the windows of the monolithic TD Bank across the street
And writing the length of your sentence with a dry erase marker
On the white board in my theology class
I thought about all the times I tried to bring you up in conversations
These my little resistances to your invisibility.
On the morning I heard that you were free
I thought about your sister Red Fawn
And your brother Rattler
And I thought about all the others in the cages
Fighting back just by surviving
I thought about just how truly beautiful each and every one of you are
How brave and strong and necessary
Is your resistance
As you stand up for the world
For the trees, the birds, the wolves, the mountains
The water
I thought about how you stood there and said after five hundred years
Enough is enough
To the white men with their guns and governments and gavels
I thought about how much you inspire us
When we see how you triumphed
Over your addiction and your own fear
By joining the beautiful people
At Standing Rock
And together fought back
Igniting a dream in all of us
A dream that becomes possible to realize
In the joy of hope
A hope you brought into the world just by surviving.
On the day I heard that you were free
I thought of all the work that needs to be done
All the stories that must be told
All the people who need to be freed
The wonderfully revolutionary presence we must build
To replace the pipelines, the cages, the inhumanity
And even though there are tears in my eyes
A smile spreads across my face.
