There Is No America

 

 

 there Is No America as we believed it to be

as we have been trained raised taught to know;

US history begins in Freedom

Flight from Persecution

and the establishment of a Free Country

 

Free to Individuals Bold enough

Determined enough

Blessed enough

to Claim their Rights under a Constitution

ostensibly written to cover “All Men” in the generic

only excluding those Not Defined as Men

NDNs Black people and Women (Of Course!)

and by that Very assumption made the Ideal

Impossible to achieve

 

another account of the founding of US

the Dark side

that Slave labor was Necessary

that Red Savages Must Be Driven Out

if we can’t Cheat em we make em Sick

if they Still Hang on Invade em

Push em to Violence defending their lands

their grounds their territories

the source of their Food

their Traditional Ceremonies

 

their Homes must give way to US

Must give way

 

Murders Were Committed

 

our Black Sisters and Brothers

after their Liberation from the bonds

of Generations of servitude

forced lives Stolen

a brief heady Time of Real Freedom

looking around at the Possibilities of Everything

then Jim Crow flew in and the Twisted Triple Ks

and then Freedom only meant Free to Suffer and Die

dangling from a tree battered and tortured

at the hands of Hatred

hands of Judgement

hands of Anger at the Servant

Elevated to the Realm of their “Betters”

and then what would They have?

what do They have but the same Grim Prospects?

enslaved people Not Even Owned by most

who were too poor to actually Own a slave

but Aspiring to do so one day

a proper Goal for a Rich White man

and Now those former servants

Some White Someone’s former servants

Might be richer than you

more respected than you

such a thing is Unconscionable

 

Fly Away Jim Crow!

Free Leonard Peltier!

Remember that Water is Sacred!

Water is Life!

Remember the Homeland was Home to Others

before you unjustly drove out

penned in

hunted down

pushed Beyond newly Created Boundaries

of Nations

boundaries Never before acknowledged

in the world of hunter gatherers

you Go where the Food is

follow the hoofprints pawprints

find the bee tree

chase fish upstream

territory only defined by relations with local tribes  

 

now invisible Lines are drawn through the land

trees and stones mark where you can no longer go

they signed treaties that were filled with lies

expressions of good faith that turned out to be Laughable

if you could stop Crying long enough

they signed Hopeless treaties

what else could they do?

That

or be expunged from the Face of the Earth

sent Nameless to the Great Beyond

Without Honor

there Is No America as we believed it to be  

there is No America except

              America To Be

 

 

© 2020 pamela twining