For Canada’s Highway 16 and the 4,000+ Missing/Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).
The red river swells with its braids undone.
Why do the trucks still howl through these frozen pines?
Each mile marker counts what’s unaccounted for.
A sister’s scarf tangles in a crow’s beak.
RCMP files reported her as drunken, high, and demented.
The red river swells with braids undone.
Gas station cameras blink like demented eye sockets,
while posters of missing women litter the city.
Each mile marker counts what’s unaccounted for.
A legislature yawns and budgets for more bills.
Familiar slogans clog social media pipelines.
The red river swells with braids undone.
Forensics jokes: another “native” case.
The soil hoards evidence in roots and vines.
Each mile marker counts what’s unaccounted for.
Dawn cleans up the asphalt. No traces or prints.
Why do the trucks still howl through these frozen pines?
The red river swells with braids undone.
Each mile marker counts what’s unaccounted for. E
