Meeting Meta, a First Nation Member of the Wolf-Clan

She came alone, but her ancestral guides were with her.
Was this the secret of her quiet strength and her presence
leaving us spellbound in anticipation?
Who did not shed a tear in the delivery of silence amidst plain words.
Knowing not the pleasure of self-seeking, her pain came alone.
Uncluttered, it tore into well-protected spaces
and rippled forth.


On the refugee’s land of Dan Kenji, neither theirs nor ours
where reverence was more precious than gold,
and responsibility was a fact of nature.
It was there where her vision took hold.

Just an ordinary clearing in the woods,
where strawberries grew and wild roses
healing was foretold.

- t’was there where I met the wolf.
In a space of silent encounter
where no strawberries grew nor wild roses where no visions filled the spaces
where nothingness came unforetold.


In this northern place of encounter

-nothing,

expecting-

where the day walk’s long into the night,
and the past, lonely, meet’s the present.

May the future ignite.

- Heidi Vukovich