What Do We Owe the Dispossessed

October 13, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is indigenous peoples in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, which was celebrated on October 8.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A poem for Indigenous People’s Day about what more recent immigrants owe indigenous peoples:

What do we owe the dispossessed?

Whose hunting grounds are now our playgrounds,

Our subdivisions, shopping malls, parking lots,

Our sidewalks, streets, highways, postage-stamp lawns,

Our homes?

Truly, what do we owe them?

Whose sacred places are now our toxic wastelands,

Or paved over by concrete or macadam,

Or made over into ersatz wilderness

From which they are the one native animal

Which is excluded?

What do we owe them?

Who have moved into quarters long since

Vacated by genocide?

Whose ancestors were oceans away,

Victims of their own genocides?

What do we owe the dispossessed,

Who are now in possession?

Must not those who enjoy the stolen fruit

Assume the burden?

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/whatd3.html. For more poems for Indigenous People’s Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/indigenouspeoplesdaypoems.html .

This week’s theme: Indigenous Peoples

10/8: Indians Are, of Course, Not Indians

10/9: We Have Become an Endangered Species

10/10: Indians? Just Get a Few

10/11: a-La-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak

10/12: The Trail of Tears

10/13: What Do We Owe the Dispossessed