Drabble #79 – its skin of gristle (this
isolate)
It’s a strange kind of reverence that comes with downing
the night’s heartbreaks in the eve of winter. The air
cold and dry, I watch you pack your luggage as I unzip mine.
Bite my lip, act like the silence isn’t choking me. Your
suitcase with the broken wheel drags by your side, like a dead
body, heavy with memories and life lost. I toss in a piece of
my heart just before the click of the lock. Do you know what
it’s like, feeling like an echo? You were always the type
who had a lot to say and no one ever knew what was going to
come out of your mouth next. Today, you didn’t say a
word, and I’m astonished by how thoroughly we have broken
each other.
It's a cry that echos through the years
The pain etched on each generation
I've been told it's history, that I am
A hundred and fifty years too late
To try and feel some type of way
But the hole in my heart wont seal up
It hurts to know that I've lost so much of
My family
My culture
My language
All because someone wanted gold
All because they needed land
And plots to call their own
Now they tell me its okay
For a school to have the mascot
Dress up in the same clothes as my Teton ancestors
They show the games on the tv
There are crowds of headresses
And dozens of faces cover in paint
Their "war cries" echo through the stadium
Where they pass a ball from one end to the other
And during half time you can watch the redman
Run and hop and holler
Impersonating a warrior in his prime
Its sad that these people see no wrong in these acts
"Its a tradition!" they claim
"Something thats been done for ages"
Cue the bitter laughter
Its a point thats proven true
Just grab an American history book
And flip to the beginning
There will be hundreds of tales
About the fight against these brown native men
And even after the war was won
They continue to earse the brown from his skin
They locked the people on strips of land
And took the children to boarding schools
Where they where told
How to dress
How to speak
And even how to live
They took their names
They took their homes
They even took their words
And all the while the Caucasian man was chanting
"Kill the indian, save the man"