by Robert M. Chute
Reviewing my visit to America
an advisor tells me of those who are
Native Americans, but we call
red indians. Their leaders say they all
understand our plight, the similarities
between ours and their troubled history.
The land on which they lived became the prize
of French and British wars. To their surprise
they found they lost their own land whoever won.
How could a king across the sea give someone
else your country? It's as if they didn't know
people already lived there: some still treat us so.
It's clear I should have studied their history
when I addressed the UN assembly.
I should have said I'm Mahmoud, chief of the
Palestinian tribe. To Israelis,
their allies, I say: we will be a nation.
We are too many for any reservation.
That, until the once Dead Sea rises again
we will be ourselves, Palestinians,
and as long as the Jordan River flows
we will be there as either friends or foes.
Robert M. Chute's book of poetry based on scientific articles, Reading Nature, is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
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