JR, Central Valley, California
What do our ancestors need from us and what do we need from them?
JR
JNK:
They need us to share our resources. They need us to respect others. They need us to take care of our responsibilities. We need them to guide us when we fail, to love us when we fail, to remind us that we don’t always have to make everything so hard. Of course I write this glibly, looking up and across the room at a fading framed photocopied photograph of my grandmother sewing kaŋmit (bearded seal skin boots), while my children fill their glasses with tapwater at the turn of a spigot, while I remember how my poems cannot bring back any of her children. How I write while I watch one of my children, named for one of my uncles, reminds me that in the Inupiaq way, our ancestors are always with us.
