At Standing Rock

Why weren’t you there?
Shuddering in the cold, doing something more than 
the clicktivism that’s animated your life so far.

Your mother once told you: 
you’re part native you know
You’d never seen your father 
so angry before.
He didn’t speak to your mother 
for a week,
cancelled their trip to France.

She never mentioned it again.

You went on with your life
until you saw those images,
read the stories on your iPad
in the comfort of your airy bedroom.

Maybe it was that moment 
when the police sprayed them with water cannons,
in sub-freezing temperatures.

Or, maybe it was the image of that boy,
caught in the glare of camera lights,
staring down the barrel of those guns
arms raised towards the sky
across an expanse of lives.

Earth, meet heaven. 

You buy your plane ticket online 
you will finally do more 
than weep for them.

© Shery Alexander Heinis