Daily Diary, Day 782:
Another poem from my father's cycle of poems about the Inuit.
KILL ME IF YOU CAN
This woman was yours
and now she belongs to me.
Come, kill me if you can.
We laugh at you.
Your name is Arctic Hare.
When you were becoming man
did you seek a polar bear?
Did you find Nanook
great wanderer of the frozen sea?
In the time of winter
did you stalk him
on to his floe of naked ice?
Did you face his purple mouth?
Did he open his terrible mouth
and yawn with you?
Did you sleep beside his trail
when he sought the aglu
of the Ringed Seal?
Did he stand tall and tremble
while you smelled his rancid breath,
while his great throat growled
his gift of power on to you?
Did you touch him?
This woman was yours
and now she belongs to me.
Come, kill me if you can.
We call you "Artic Hare."
We shame you with our laughter.
If you will be a man
you will stalk me.
You will sleep beside my trail
as I come to the breathing hole
of the Ringed Seal.
Kill me if you can.
I am Nomad Bear.
This woman is mine.
--Joseph Locke