Faraway But Not Forgotten Waves lap the beach in endless cadence even now, ascending the beach falling back. Leaving the sand glistening under sun and star. Cold water on your feet its gripping froth and pulsing splash How could the world so timeless change so fast? Wrenched from your lifelong home, on Gichi agaaming. . The coolness of nibi on your ankles in your mind, in your heart, just yesterday Stiff shoes, cut hair, silenced words, And fear today faraway from home. This is a poem about how it may have been like for any imprisoned youth from Lake Superior country suddenly swept into the boarding school system. As a non-Native, I don't presume to intimately know their pain. It is only as a human being I know the inspiration Gichi agaaming provides in such short meeting when one is open to its earthly presence.