Know My Skin

I recently visited my hometown of Wrangell, Alaska. My father, sister, daughters, cousins and eveyone else dear to me lives there. Everything is familiar. I am related to that place, to petroglyph beach, to Elephant's Nose, and Pat's Lake. The place is me. This poem "Know My Skin" refects my idenity and was featured in Earthspeak Magazine. Don't forget to check out the poetry video below.

Know My Skin

To know my skin, smell bull kelp

and popweed, catch my scent

after a morning walk on the beach.
Know my skin—pronounce my name,

your voice rising and falling; don't laugh
whenever I speak. Be able to lick

the bark of my skin, at s’áxt—it tastes

like soggy earth, the flavor of rainforest.

And listen—don't be offended

by scratchy sounds,  settle in among

silences. Know my skin—look beyond

paleness, see reindeer herds,

glaciers calving, kittiwakes sitting

on drifting logs, and snails. Learn

my outer shell, ax daakanóox'u;

understand my membrane-layered world;

touch peculiar stories, become familiar

with strangeness: my antenna eyestalks,

the spiral of my shell, and my slick-

tongued foot.