I knew I wanted to share a poem from Dena’ina poet Annie Wenstrup’s book “The Museum of Unnatural Histories.” But I didn’t realize it would be so hard to choose ONE. It’s a book of poetry that really interacts with the reader, and one poem speaks to the next. How do you separate a complete work like that? But I did keep coming back to this one – maybe because it speaks so much to the reader, while speaking to the past.

See the rest of the National Poetry Month Indigenous poems here.

Chapter 2

By Annie Wenstrup

Ggugguyni swaddled Half-human-woman.
She rocked her and then pretended
that Half-human-woman—my goodness,
that’s a mouthful to say every time.

Why don’t we give her a nickname.
Something easier to say? We can
call her Sally, a familiar
and short name.

Ggugguyni pretended that Sally was a colicky baby.
She pretended Sally cried and was naughty.
So—traditionally speaking, the sukdu
doesn’t tell us how Sally was imagined
to be naughty. Perhaps it’s better that way—
when Ggugguyni caws Bad baby! Bad!
and tosses the bundle over a ledge
each of us may project into the scene

our own definition of badness and goodness.
Each of us may imagine our own misbehavior,
bundle it and chuck it into an abyss.
I understand this may be uncomfortable

for you to name. Here is permission.
You may pretend along with me.