Sunday, February 9, 2014

A Poem

I want to know about the Grief
That lives in the shadow of your bones

I want to know if you remember
When the troops came to your people's land
How they set fire to huts
How they took your grandmother's ancestral tongue
How they split the trees, broke the bones, spilt the blood
How they impregnated the People with New Gods
How they buried what was Holy and Wild 
And aught you to Hate the Untamable 
Eradicating the memory of being Free.

How the arrogant, violent frenzy
Destroyed everything is Sight in Mind in Heart.
Conquered. Colonized. 
Strip Mined.

I want to know if you can 
Shed the tears that
the wrinkles around your grandfather eyes could not.

I want to know if you can let your Tender Heart Heal
If you can let your tongue re-member
the people, the land, the culture, the waters, the wild, the songs, the sun, the food, the prayers, the screaming cries of new life

That relentless Force of Life 
Bringing the Seeds of your People to new Shores
the Indigenous song that still lives in you.

I want to know 
If you can connect to Dirt once again
and to the heartbeat 
under your feet.
                             ~Fabio Fina

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