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Silence for Christina Calderón [1]
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Date: 2022-08-20
Christina Calderón from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_Calderón
Silence for Christina Calderón
When the last orange and black Monarch
Flutters to the ground, wings stilled forever,
Will the other butterfly species of the world
Twitch their antennae in mourning?
I read in a science fiction book
Of some future time,
When no one spoke English
Or any derived Earth language,
Humanity was not dominant
Nor culturally relevant,
The galaxy spoke Kack-ick
Universally, even on our home planet.
On February 16, 2022, the last living speaker
Of Yaghan,
An indigenous language
Of Tierra del Fuego (Chili),
Died,
Stock markets around the Earth
Did not flicker,
World leaders did not note it,
No planetary priests or preachers offered prayers,
Another rare language goes extinct
And who grieves for the lost poetry,
Lost stories, lost ways,
Lost sounds,
The world does not end
Only a world view.
An analysis of the phonological system
Of Yahgan does exist
To languish in some linguist's file folder
Along with Juma, Klallam, Wichita,
Demushbo, Pazeh, Aka-Bo
And many others.
I wish to honor the last Yaghan,
Christina Calderón,
A person in her own right
Who lived a long life
Who accrued entomologist and scholar
Among her attributes,
With this space of silence
[ ]
May your blessing be,
Christina,
Last sweet sister speaker
Of the Yaghan sounds.
I have no more words to say.
Carl Scott Harker ©2022
__________________________________________
My latest book of poetry is now available on Amazon, you can find good poems here: Lyrics Looking for a Musician.
[END]
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