Kind of Like Wishing


               Areas of thought
                             Huge and open
90’s young warrior
Shoots his first deer, I sit
Kind of Like Wishing
               He’s my son

               Tlingit memory
                          Foam on open sea
Raven’s Tail Blanket
Swaying on dancers, I wear it
Kind of Like Wishing
                My grandmother’s gift

                                 Ancestral dreams
                                 Seaweed swimming oceans
Grandchildren singing
Tlingit, I’m speaking
Kind of Like Wishing
                My future

                          Spirit beings
                                       Rocks of island formations
Hoonah elders know
'Lxeis' is my name,
Kind of Like Wishing
                 Kind of Like Wishing

                              Names
                                       Tlingit meanings transcending

 


(My Tlingit name Lxeis', was translated by T'akdeintaan elder, Katherine Mills of Hoonah, as “kind of like wishing” -- Lxeis' was her mother’s name)


© Diane E Benson