by MITCHOLOS TOUCHIE
Dancing with the Ancestors by Frank Belleau
Canada
Take my hands while this big, big village remains suicidally cis-societal
in the stench of caffeine, cigarettes & semen;
instead of sage, sweat & ceremony
It is no sacred ceremony to celebrate Columbus Day;
for it is simply & sanctimoniously contributing to Custer’s continuing posthumous campaign
Cash this reality check in exchange for cultural value as I write it clearly for you:
Compromise is conformity to comfort
Comfort is conducive to complacency
Complacency is a symptom of being idle
Idle no more, and we break the systematic cycle
Since I’m writing poetry,
crafting my identity
and keeping a firm grip on my cultural values
instead of chopping trees for my master,
Christopher Columbus would have both my hands chopped off
I hate to say that not a whole lot has changed
Callous neo-colonizers enact laws
incongruently void of inclusive consultation
that keeps our hands tied
and completely dependent with our hands out for hand outs
Economy and a fair share of our own stolen resources is beyond our reach,
behind the sheets and sheets and layers of sheets on stacks of sheets on parliament hill,
wrapped up and bowed by red tape in the shape of a maple leaf
just a reminder to you now,
idle hands hold us down the most
So I encourage you to cash this reality check,
providing proper ID
’cause all a race card ever got you was a free ride
to fucking jail
Anybody celebrating Columbus Day can take my hands all they want
They are merely limbs without roots
You expect these limbs to rebuild forests when the roots have starved for cultural nourishment since long before 1885
You expect the roots to regrow when the soil’s been poisoned since long before 1867
Dominion for more