Author’s Note: Indigenous science writer and wise woman Robin Wall Kimmerer wants to help correct English’s objectification of the natural world. She has been advocating a change to our use of the third person neuter pronoun “it” for things that are very much alive for animists and deep ecologists. Her suggestion substitutes “ki” for “it” – utilizing a suffix from her Potawatomi tradition which means “from the living earth.” As a bridge to that change, I’ve taken to adding the suffix “ki” to “it” in my poetry.
Capt. B can see heshe was raised on the Christian
story. Found Ramadan a whole lot like Lenten
fasts pre-Easter. Before the palm leaf & alleluias
Ask herhim, “So who’s God?” & heshe’ll say
A great big bearded Old Man who knows it-key all
Infallible as il Papa, the Pope, according to the
Bible of the Vatican (never vacant) Holy Roman
Empire Church where all too often itki was
the clergy (even some of the Redhats) who’re
first in communion & last out of confession
Capt. B can’t see red for blue, or even green
unadulterated. To herhim itki’s the Radical
mess of the Middle where itki’s best
to bend a knee
