After viewing the Carved Trees exhibition

(an excerpt )

Arborglyphs, Dendroglyphs
These are the scientific words
The white man uses to describe
Our tree writing, the sophisticated hieroglyphics 
Of an ancient culture, an ancient civilisation
These are the words used to describe
The arboreal classrooms on which
Our ceremonies & laws were writ large
The sweat & blood of the carvers impregnating
The DNA of our people into the
Limbs of the sapwood and heartwood
That lined the pathway of learning
For the young warriors & their teachers
 
Did giving them these cold, hard words
Calling them the tree carvings of a primitive people,
Make it easier for the scientist,
The anthropologist, the land coveter
To rip them from their belonging place?
To destroy the warriors’ classrooms or
Desecrate the graves of our lost ancestors?

Read the full poem >