when you dig up the base of a wildrose,
even the smallest of roots will regrow
the calling card of the boreal forest is tenacious
and we, the children of our ancestor’s children,
answer to the bushes in everything that we do
we could have succumbed to environmental collapse
or given in to the despairs of time wasted
but some have heard change call our names
pushed education and research to its limits
we’ve planted solar farms and harvested harmful air pollutants
integrated wastewater and built healthy food systems
climate science and practices
are scaled up, from trial to implementation
and the web of our actions are tangled rose stems;
overlapping and protecting one another; our industries
all have one thing in common: we’re tackling
environmental remediation together
I wish for – greener skies; yellow suns; the water
in the whispers of Saskatchewan running free. I wish for cat tails in the
wetland growing strong, the pond a welcome return for geese,
the rain recycled from tongue to meet ocean once again. I wish
to remember that we are a part of something bigger than me
so why not dream, bigger than me, too?
even a child knows how to hold the seeds of the dandelion
in a small, but powerful fist; hold the answer close without
crushing, knows that hope is a deep breath let out
as a want and a wish
there’s so much at stake; there is so much to be asked
of you and your hands, of you and your hearts
so use them both in equal measure, because on our own
our minds are lonely places, full of answers made solutions
so be a solution, see the problems and face the challenge
with a magpie’s attention; and speak with the robin’s throat at dawn,
sleep heavy like the beaver at rest, with the weight of opportunity
to make a home out of impossibility with each new morning’s crest
the hips of a wildrose stay on stem through the winter, ready to bud come the spring
and we know the snow has melted, on land that needs us more than ever
the clock is ticking; the time is now
for us to wake up, and start to flower