Forgotten Ground Regained
The same poem in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe)
What the Peepers Say
Agoozimakakiig Idiwag
After the winter waiting no longer half- frozen by design our calling becomes all calling.
Ishkwaa biboon bii’omigag gaawiin geyabi aabita- nibwaakaamashkawajisiiwaad biibaagiyaang ani biibaagiyang.
Under the rippling bark peepers have thawed to crawl into the swamp where my calling becomes your calling.
A seismic seiche A synaptic snowstorm of springtime repetition and your calling becomes my calling.
As we drift away on our echoes we are the details we are the distance and all calling becomes our calling
Naami-zaasiji-wanagek agoozimakakiig gii ningizyang mii noopimidoodeyang mashkiigong biibaagiyaan ani biibaagiyan.
Dibishkoo didibaashkaa zhaabwibiisaag zoogipog ziigwang ziibiskaaj miidash biibaagiyaan ani biibaagiyan.
Epichii maadaa’ogoyang basweweyang beshoganawaabmigag aawiyang waasaganawaabmigmag aawiyang biibaagiyang ani biibaaginidiyang.
Copyright © Margaret Noodin, 2018
First published in H.E. Erdrich, ed., New Poets of Native Nations (2018) and in What the Chickadee Knows;
reprinted in Forgotten Ground Regained, New Series, Issue 5, Winter, 2025
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