Sámi National Day
“Think of me every day
Tell those southerners about me
Tell them how they’re breaking me down
bit by bit
piece by piece
Tell them about the folk up here
about how we live
about our struggle, hands chilled and souls on fire
Tell them about the workers and the pit
the half-year’s darkness, the drink that ensnares
Tell them we sometimes have no strength to spare
when colonialism makes good neighbors rare
Tell them about the plagues of midges
the chilly summers
the health care gaps
Then when they ask why you want to return
Tell them about the rays of the midnight sun
the murmur of the waters
the shimmer of the northern lights
Tell of the coffee that’s always simmering
the fire that’s always crackling
the smell of fresh baking
Nan’s Finnish lilt and ciggies, part of childhood
Tell of the fire that never fades
in activists, workers, retirees
Sing my songs, the ones we all know up here
Show me to those southerners
Tell them about all the tongues that are mine
all the nature that’s mine
and say:
if I’m not the greatest wonder they’ve ever seen
Then they have no business here
for my forests, ore, and water aren’t theirs to take.”
To the Girl Who Moved South by Rönn-Lisa Zakrisson
Chorlton Unitarians 