May Day Poem

Written 2018

In this space, where I stand,

Where I walk,

I claim indigenous lands

Invisible Nations, colonists refuse to see.

But here we stand, across millennia,

Still we won’t end

We are more than a ghostly echo.

We are strength!

Shared in our hearts,our bodies,

Sung upon drums

Heartbeat of the land,

Turtle, generations, Unchi Makha.

How don’t you see?

Ripped from our Mothers.

Still; we learned.

I learned early how to walk silently,

To be appropriately unseen.

They played dolls, We skirted treachery.

My blood, my body, my sex, my soul, my heart, my mind:

Discarded, invalid

Then

I learned I am seen.

Seen by those payed to identify us:

Social workers, cops, nurses, bartenders

….your soldiers.

Entrusted to mitigate my presence.

Our stand.

I learned we are sought.

Sought by those hired to exploit us.

Display us like the days we were kept in tourist traps.

Politicians, NGO’s, more tourists,

The teacher in charge of the Thanksgiving show.

Displayed relics of the past, dead,forgotten, ghostly bands….

Hell No!

I learned invisibility….is a lie.

When I rose.

When I spoke.

When I screamed and yelled with all my might upon my lands….

MY LANDS.

For yet another of a thousand last stands…

Suddenly they see me,

not just a relic,

now they deny me, deny us!

They claim to de identify us,

Re identify

Off Rez, displaced, drunk, ½ breed,

Using their systems….

How dare they suggest any of that’s a choice!

They’re hoping I go silently with a fight.

Bitch please, We were born to fight.

Warrior upon Warrior past their genes through me,

Never to end,

Even when it proved to be

A good day to die.

That’s my strength.

My

Blood

Soaked

Birthright.

So where does this leave us?

What does it mean?

Will you still have an Indian to greet the Queen?

Invite me to celebrate my death,

I’ll burn your flag of genocide.

Ask me to settle down,

I’ll put your settler ass to the ground.

Tell me this isn’t the time or space,

And I’ll destroy the entire place.

You won’t tolerate my Rage?

We’re done tolerating your state!!

Go line up at the next exist,

We’re busy decolonizing this shit,

Doing it so good your lover already forgot you exist.