looking back

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Posted by: sharondanicest Original: 11/9/2010 7:34 PM Views: 2 Comments: 0 eProps: 0 Read Comments Post a Comment Back to Your Xanga Site

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Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Reflections on Six Nations

Innocently,
you were a part of my To Do list.
An absent check on my Life Experiences.
I want to meet a Native.

Growing up,
Pocahontas upon Westerns,
My long black hair and
Copper-toned skin,
I was encouraged to believe,
I looked like a "Little Indian Girl."

In my mind,
you were My Noble Savages,
Unaware of these implications.

I only knew,
that your alleged "Dying Race"
was inevitable through my own experiences with
Imperialism's Dark Reach.

Documentaries
taught me
of injustices

my ignorance a small child
listening to alleged truths

Mistreated Noble Savages
Forced to leave their homes.

Your land you signed away
Unknowingly

School Assemblies
I sat and listened to your stories
Your dance and your drums
Filled our young ears
With your side

More injustices on top of disgrace

Small-pox-ridden blankets
traded for your fur
leading to many of your deaths
that they knew would ensue

No excuse of Ignorance
could have saved your lives,
I cried.

Defending
you, to ignorant friends,
but without proper explanation

blindly declaring Injustice
to peers so strong on discrimination's side
needing its feet to stand on
so they can sound smart with their pride

Laughing at my fragmented
re-telling
of lesson-filled stories
just pieces of my memory

My Penpal
of one letter
to me
excited to read about
his hobbies:
watching tv
hanging with friends
smoking marijuana
he wrote so casually
age: 15
my grade 10 geography class
our replies a mere exercise
possibly forgotten to be mailed out

Playing
tag with children
from Ohsweken

so far from the
Romanticized images
of my ignorant mind

just regular children
who want to have fun

easy to please
with humanity's common language
of laughter.

Posted 11/9/2010 7:34 PM - 2 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments