A House on Katlian

There is a house on winding Katlian that leans
silver-weathered wood walls into the rain.
It leans so far it breaths on you as you walk
by, breathing with the same weight of
gravity that curves an elder over her cane,
her mouth beside your ear.

When I walk by in the rain the elder spirit whispers
in Tlingit swishes and clicks
of neglect and other's ignor-
ance hanging over the village,
over this street like the mists
hiding Mt. Edgecumbe's height
across the harbor.

When you come to the bend of Katlian,
when the air is moist with rain:
over you,
beside you will be
this silver-weathered house
shining in its mist.

Listen.

Let your eyes stray past the harbor,
search for Edgecumbe's
snow-iced volcanic crater,
beautiful since before we knew time.


(Tlingit is the language of the Tlingit people, native to the Sitka area of Southeast Alaska. Katlian is the name of a Tlingit leader, and the name of the main street running through the area of Sitka that once was a Tlingit village.)