The Dream Carrier

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silver
a mythical metal
protects the child in the papoose
adorns woman’s bosom with glittering brooches
sends sparkles of charm from men’s belts
the silver
the sun
speech is silver

silver threads playing in necklaces
like silk softly swirling around a neck

a naked tundra far away
in a different world
endless plains and big sky
home for nomads and animals
constantly on the move from place
to place
the barren earth
the cold winters and their inexorable
demand for survival
the mosquito bites of bright summer nights

the extensive wanderings across rivers and lakes
time is part of nature
the breath of the wasteland
the girl asleep on her feet in the wind
the dream carrier, the young girl
depicted
in-between silver threads barbed wire
and black freshwater pearls from
the river estuaries in
the borderlands

richly adorned vestments in silver
and copper and gold
silver nests with gold flowers
silver furs with gold flowers
necklets of eighteen carat gold and
reindeer hairs

the border-crosser from the cold war
pins with stars hammer and sickle
silver webs
barbed wire from the border
the big Russian realm
hairs from bearskin
horsehair

the borders that are crossed

the small dream carriers
with white fur caps
will go to the sooty cities
away from the tundra
away from the hard life
the warm-blooded animals

pictures of faces
hidden in chains of silver thread
like memories joined together

the girls from brigade number five
the dream carriers
a pigeon drops dead
when the girls leave
a community dies

memories of the silk road
the bond between east and west
caravans trekking through sand dunes and
desert winds
the silk from China
the roads that disappear in the wind

cultures that vanish
war destruction ruins
the furrowed faces
with stories engraved
the language of the tundra
live or die

life is here and now
life is a circle
life is us and the reindeer
life is tundra
I am tundra

life in movement
the nomadic blood
inside a tent away from
the wind and icy cold
people on the outer edge
in the middle of their own world
follow the reindeer
listen to the song of the wind

silver the mythical
wealth for those who do not own land
adornments for the dream carriers
the girls who want to leave

I cannot live in one place
I have to move with the reindeer
it is my life
it sets me free