While reading these poems, there
were quotes from a few of them that reminded me of both Full Body Burden and
Parable of the Sower. In “the Removal,”
one quote stood out to me the most as pertaining to Full Body Burden. “…Better to sacrifice the few than let the
many die” directly relates to the government and to how I always assumed what
the government was feeling when it came to Rocky Flats (18). When I picture Rocky Flats, I imagine it was
designed to look just like any other factory.
I imagine it just as was described in “Genesis,” they build “…a
chain-link fence around it all to keep the secret (37).
Some lines
in “the Fence” strongly reminded me of Parable of the Sower. I can almost imagine Lauren’s fear of the
people on the outside breaking through her community’s wall all over again
within the last stanza. “Our parents say
they’re in lands far away… but we know better.
They are here. We feel them
pressing on the fence. We sense they
want what’s hidden here. But if they
don’t get ‘it’ they won’t get us. We’re sheltered in the secret and free to
play as long as we stay inside the fence (39).
The point
of the collection of poems, I found in the afterword. Awiakta’s purpose was to unite “seemingly
opposing worlds…the sacred and the scientific.
It is a spiritual union, the reconciling of opposites, to which her
poetry gives full expression.” Upon
reading this, “Pine Ridge: Pilgrimage to the Prophet” comes to mean something
more in my mind. It isn’t just about
John being in a museum; it explains much more.
“He’s in a museum. By a giant
atom with electrons whirling round it like tiny azure stars, there he sits –
sketched leaning on his cane. His
prophecy came true. They’ve hung
pictures to show it’s so” (52). This is
a subtler way to show “where atom and mountain meet” (65). A religious prophetic man next to a great science-based
structure; it literally is where opposing worlds are united, within the same
place, the same room, next to each other.
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