In the Barrels of the Earth: A poem by Maggie Burton

Newfoundland poet and St. John’s city councillor Maggie Burton wrote the following poem during the 2024 Frank McKenna Awards, drawing inspiration from the event’s three honourees – Laura Lee Langley, Chief Mi’sel Joe and Dr. Anya Waite – and the theme of momentum in Atlantic Canada:

“For years, we were told we were the have-nots, and we were. But we’ve stopped thinking of ourselves as the kids with the holes in our shoes and we’re leaning into our advantages.” – Laura Lee Langley, President of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)

“You don’t get very far by insulting people, by pounding on a desk. You have to earn respect, and you have to be respectful.” – Chief Mi’sel Joe of Miawpukek First Nation in Newfoundland 

We were the kids with holes in our shoes

we once tucked a hand in the gap

between the classes. We found

in the barrels of the earth

where Have-Nots drown

the whales stop singing

music in liquid form

pulls you under

the spell of the circulating sea.

In sinks of carbon

the chimneys of the ocean

are swept by those

taken by storm

with each fraction of a degree.

But it’s in dark matter

where denial blooms most like algae

and we know — everything

germinates better with heat.

Here, tension rumbles

in F150s, we take Caribbean cruises

while democracy falls around us

with the scattering ashes

of our forests. I pound on desks

but you know better, asking —

with whom must you speak

to see something change —

but what is it we should want?

If the answers were known

the whales would sing them

from the barrels of the earth

All we know

Is that we must keep asking.