Northern Lights
Sue Hoffman
Green-born:
a blessing;
a child to unite tribes.
Red-born:
a gift;
a child to bring joy.
Yellow-born:
a mystery;
who knows the child’s fate?
But I was born
when the night was black,
when the sky-dancers slept,
their coloured capes folded to cushion weary heads,
and nothing could waken them;
not my father’s yells
nor my mother’s pleas,
not even the dance-drums of the Elders.
And so we live
by sufferance,
cast out from the clan’s heart,
forbidden to sing.
