Travels with a Deaf Chippewa
Thunder Bay at dawn
Wisconsin woods by nightfall
The Jeep’s tires disregarding
the line of demarcation
Cananda First Nation
U. S. reservation
He lifted his Gibson Nighthawk from the back
and placed it lovingly on a blanket spread over nettles
Pulled his long hair into a ponytail and
plugged the amp into a camp site power pole
as he settled into a low beach chair,
he smiled at me and cranked up the volume.
I signed “taking a walk”
and sprinted up the hillside,
away from the river he could not hear flowing
and the music he heard only through his feet.
