Baleen Scrimshaw as 16mm Film
Shoot in 16 mm film, capture her sitting under
an olive-green archway.
Loop the sound of steel striking glass.
When you blink, the camera captures
the frame of her kin, walking upside down.
Loop the sound of tundra grass sprouting.
Her hairline marks her shift from caribou to woman.
Standing in front of three white spotlights
the silhouette of five black arrowheads
departs from her lips.
Splice together her eyelashes and
frozen lids exaggerate the strain
of her freckles coiled into song.
Inukshuks tumble from the tips of her fingernails
guiding the landing strip for twin otters;
they watch their children travel to the moon,
or perhaps they erase our oiled webs.
Chart sixteen luminaries into the Beaufort Sea.
Wait. Wait. Wait.
The shutter will remember
their white crested etchings.
They resurface in the lyric of your documentary.
Copyright Credit: Cathy Tagnak Rexford, "Baleen Scrimshaw as 16 mm Film" from Effigies. Copyright © 2009 by Cathy Tagnak Rexford. Reprinted by permission of Salt Publishing.