by Sister Lou Ella
am i too white to mourn with you
Indigenous Peoples
of the terror my people
created in your lives your nations
of the wound you still carry
a weariness called so slow to trust
yet
what if my people never came
would today look like today
we are here
this complicated now
would that it be simple
but it was simple then
as terror is always simple
for we came we saw we conquered
yet we are here today
complicated costly
as we, too, carry a wound
the terror we refuse to see and mourn
Sister Lou Ella is a former teacher and librarian. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines such as America, First Things, Emmanuel, Third Wednesday, and TheNewVerse.News as well as in four anthologies: The Night’s Magician: Poems about the Moon, edited by Philip Kolin and Sue Brannan Walker, Down to the Dark River edited by Philip Kolin, Secrets edited by Sue Brannan Walker, and After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events edited by Tom Lombardo. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2017. Her first book of poetry entitled she: robed and wordless was published in 2015. (Press 53.)
