Ma'iingan: A Poem for Wolf

As we gear up to launch another year of the Seventh Fire Project, it seems particularly fitting to publish this original poem here, marking Michigan's first pending wolf hunt on November 15. This hunt was to be voted on by Michigan citizens, but that referendum was undermined by political maneuvering on the part of our state politician, initiated by our own U.P. senator, an act of disloyalty towards Yoopers that I'm still shocked at.

As we speak, Wisconsin is in the throes of it's second wolf hunt, scheduled to last until February or until all 251 wolves in the hunting quota are killed - that's one-third of the population of wolves in the state of Wisconsin. The DNR has already closed the wolf hunt units in the north, as all the wolves that can legally be killed (plus one) have been killed. And the hunt only started a little over 10 days ago.
  


Image from http://www.turtlehurtled.com/how-wolves-became-dogs/

MA'IINGAN:
A POEM FOR WOLF
A. Cree Dunn

We reach out
   and run our hands
      through your thick
          and heavy fur.
Closing our eyes,
   we press our forehead
      to yours.
We romp with the pups
    and play chase with you
       through the forest.
Our breath in the cold
   mingles with yours.
In the rivers of your song
   we swim to the stars.
And when we look
   into your knowing eyes
       your wild spirit reminds us who we really are.