A poem for Columbus Day in which Columbus asks us to understand the context of his actions and appreciate his role in creating our times:
Clearly,
I was a person of my times,
One
who treated races not my own
Like
savages, sub-humans. Now my crimes
Understandably
must stand alone,
Must,
like Washington's, like Jefferson's,
Be
seen as though memorialized in stone,
Unfit
for celebration, the preference
Switched
to those whose brutal genocide
Deserves
far more than I to be remembered.
A
plea for context, though: the seas I plied
Yielded
up a future I engendered.
©
by Nicholas Gordon
Audio and Video Music: Destination
Unknown. By Ugonna Onyekwe. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit:
AI
To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/clear4.html. For more Columbus Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/columbusdaypoems.html .
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