by Margaret Rozga
A name the conquistadores imposed
as if Christian, as if a name said it all.
There is not a single savior anywhere
anymore, if ever there was. Now
there in the name of the Savior, they
twist, strip meaning, bend backs,
shackle, shave heads, imprison,
no hope of return.
What angel, angels, to roll back this stone?
Arise, arise as one. Be one, good people.
Margaret Rozga, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee at Waukesha Professor of English Emerita, served as the 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate and the 2021 inaugural artist/scholar in residence at the UW Milwaukee at Waukesha Field Station. She has published six books, most recently Restoring Prairie (2024) and Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems (2021).
