*Illustration reference:
Residential school survivor Harriet Prince of
Sagkeeng First Nation
Credit - Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press Files
Take but a moment, close your eyes
Breathe in deep cool sweet air
Imagine running free through grass
So quick on feet left bare
Replace those treasured memories With cold stare and hard bed
You’ve been ripped from the life you love
To sharp blows ‘gainst your head
Confused and frightened so alone
To cries no one will listen
The rhythm of your life is now
Be beaten to submission…
There is no justice for their pain
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When all their people want is truth To honour their survival
There is no peace to reconcile
Till eyes are opened wide
Till souls returned cross rivers cold
Braced by the tears they’ve cried
And yet the surface barely touched
For secrets still lie buried
Unenlightened and unseen
The burdens they have carried
Those hardened layers now give way
It frightens with its starkness
We can’t be thwarted by the ache
There is no truth in darkness
So take that moment, close your eyes
And open full your heart
We must observe this day’s dark awe
Tho meager, it’s a start…