THE CALENDAR KEEPER
— Native American nations such as the Kiowa, the Mandan and the Lakota have a ‘calendar keeper’ who, with the Elders, establishes a name for each year commemorating the most notable event in that year, and makes a record of them).
If I was a calendar keeper
I would establish no names,
For there are no new events
In our years, and each year
Is the same as any other:
2022 Great Destruction,
The year in which humanity
Wiped out so many creatures,
So many forests and wetlands,
So many grasslands and pastures,
And continued to think it had
A life apart from the world.
2023 Great Destruction,
The year in which humanity
Wiped out so many creatures,
So many forests and wetlands,
So many grasslands and pastures,
And continued to think it had
A life apart from the world.
2024 Great Destruction,
The year in which humanity
Wiped out so many creatures,
So many forests and wetlands,
So many grasslands and pastures,
And continued to think it had
A life apart from the world.
I would not record these years
Of shame, and the people would not
Know where they stood
In the current of time, as indeed
They stand nowhere.
John Leonard is a Canberra poet with five poetry collections published. His poetry has been widely published, in Australia, the UK and the US and on the Internet, and some of his poems have been translated into various languages. His novel Shakespeare in Virginia was published in 2024 in London. www.jleonard.net"