This Anger Runs Deep
by Louise Gallagher

This anger 
fuelled by centuries 

of abuse and cruelty, 
colonization, 
and attempted genocide

of the peoples who walked these lands
long before the settlers came

this anger runs deep
deep 
and fierce

and red
like the salmon
pushing upstream
fighting for life.


This anger
runs deep

pushing against the river
of settlers who raced
to claim these lands from sea to sea
these lands 
the people who once walked

proud and free

never tried to claim
because they held
deep within their bodies

deep within their ways 

the knowing,
no one could own the land
or the rivers

or the trees

or the wild life that ran

free
through the forests
 of these lands
they once walked
and hunted and gathered
proud and free.


This anger
runs red 
like the salmon

pushing upstream
in a fight for survival
and the right

to once again be of this land
proud and free
and to stand tall
like their ancestors
who once walked
these lands

before the settlers came
and washed away their ways

to leave this anger
running deep.