While Taking a Walk in My Mother's New Neighborhood

BY: ADRIENNE PILON

While taking a walk in my mother’s new

neighborhood I discover the streets

are all named for First Peoples

The path is concrete,

or asphalt.

It winds through

cul-de-sacs

Ohlone, Pomo

covering old lands.

The path makes space

between

streets where

Miwok, Maidu

people

can walk along paths of the

Yana, Yahi

community’s making

because this place

is all about community

making, slowing, greeting,

Salinan, Modoc

stopping

along the path

like deer pausing at rustling leaves

like owls steeling for prey

like bears stalking fish in a river

where there is now

a subdivision called

Bear River

even though the river

is a drying creek

Pudah

and there are no more bears.

These names are boldly written

to tell us what has been erased

and though these streets

are plotted, mapped, marked

I still cannot imagine

where we are

going.

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Adrienne Pilon is a teacher, writer and editor. Recent work can be found in Misfit Magazine, Porcupine Literary and elsewhere. The natural and human-made landscapes of California provide her with continual inspiration.