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The fallen Christopher Columbus statue outside the Minnesota State Capitol after a group led by American Indian Movement members tore it down in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 10, 2020. Photo by Tony Webster at Flickr. |
Hero of our youth:
Charading as pioneer-explorer
Worthy of our praise
And missing class on a Monday.
You, with your flag staked onto holy ground:
Like a schoolyard bully finding a dime
And yelling, “finders keepers!”
Like a limping dog
Marking elm bark with rank urine.
Like landing on the moon in 1969
And claiming discovery.
We behead your statues;
We wash our hands of your crimson stain
And honor you for who you are:
Directionless sailor
Enslaver-trafficker
Murderous thief.
Charading as pioneer-explorer
Worthy of our praise
And missing class on a Monday.
You, with your flag staked onto holy ground:
Like a schoolyard bully finding a dime
And yelling, “finders keepers!”
Like a limping dog
Marking elm bark with rank urine.
Like landing on the moon in 1969
And claiming discovery.
We behead your statues;
We wash our hands of your crimson stain
And honor you for who you are:
Directionless sailor
Enslaver-trafficker
Murderous thief.
Very respectfully,
Christine Anderson
Christine Anderson is a poet from Chicago, Il. Her work has previously been published in The Chicago Sun-Times, After Hours, and The Agepe Review. She is a civil rights paralegal and an M.A. candidate in Creative Writing at DePaul University.