if Our Bodies Could Rust We Would Be Falling Apart by Billy-Ray Belcourt

On January 27, 2017, Barbara Kentner was struck with a trailer hitch thrown from a moving vehicle in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Before her death, Kentner recalled that the man who threw the object said, “Oh, I’ve got one”. In “If Our Bodies Could Rust, We Would Fall Apart”, Billy-Ray Belcourt delves into the implications of that phrase—or, more specifically, how that one phrase was left unaddressed by police in determining if the attack was a hate crime. Using the phrase “Oh, I’ve got one” as a refrain, Belcourt weaves both generational anger towards systemic racism and feelings of grief for Barbara Kentner to create a deeply resonant piece of poetry.

Billy-Ray Belcourt is a writer from the Driftpile Cree Nation who was awarded the 2019 Indspire Award, the highest honour bestowed on Indigenous leaders in his community. His debut book also made him the youngest 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize winner.