Red dress

***Awareness and signals are not enough. This poem is not enough. It is merely my heart aching.

Search Prairie Green Landfill, MB.

***I acknowledge that I write— in this beautiful place I call home—is the unceded territory of the Lkwungen (Lekwungen) People, also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations communities – past, present, and future.***

I’ll put my red dress on, not to

Slip into her skin, but to mourn.

Her death, sadly, is nothing new.

We, society, fail and scorn—

Against her blood: she gave this land

Hope and power, and strength and more.

She’s mother, daughter, helping hand;

The very best, so why abhor?

I’ll put my red dress on, not to

Proudly wear the colours of home—

But for her—each of her. Imbue

This red dress…She’s not alone.