Ketchikan Totem
By Toby Biewlawski
Where I come from, knives don’t speak
But here they tell all, talk tall
Scrolling the blade down cedar shaft
Until Bear rumbles and Raven cries.
Me, caught between traveler and tourist,
I walk the back of the big house
To watch the carver work. He doesn’t turn his head for questions,
But I’ve already read the guidebooks
And talked to the museum staff. I know the stories
He’s putting in wood:
How Raven stole the moon, and Eagle got it back
How Sturgeon spoke to Bear, convinced him
To catch only Salmon. So I stand quietly,
Make a few notes; later at the lodge, I write it all down.
And then look at the blue ball-point, pages of journal.
Re-read and remember the Umpqua carvers who
Turn quiet trees into
Chattering stalks of stories.
——
Toby Bielawski is a Bay Area writer and teacher, and has previously published poems in hardpan, seedhouse, The Green Age Review and Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco, from Manic d Press. She has published travel-related prose at Pology.com and intravelmag.com.
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