by Celeste DeSario
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| Dedicated to Chief Harry Wallace of the Unkechaug Nation and to all Sovereign Indigenous Nations working to reclaim sacred lands and to revive stolen languages that speak the truth to history. |
Thank you for welcoming us to your lands,
And for teaching us to plant crops that actually grow.
The corn, squash, beans
Helped us survive when the seeds we brought from overseas failed.
Thank you for teaching us to use fish to fertilize soil too poor to grow crops.
We got rich shipping your deer hides and beaver pelts back to the motherland,
while you helped us build birchbark canoes and guided us along ancient trails.
Thank you for showing us how to identify wild blueberries
And harvest cranberries hidden in bogs.
And sharing with us how to use Sumac to ward off fevers and colds.
And thank you for introducing us to Pokeweed
So, we could use its ink to sign treaties
We had no intention of keeping.
And for teaching us to plant crops that actually grow.
The corn, squash, beans
Helped us survive when the seeds we brought from overseas failed.
Thank you for teaching us to use fish to fertilize soil too poor to grow crops.
We got rich shipping your deer hides and beaver pelts back to the motherland,
while you helped us build birchbark canoes and guided us along ancient trails.
Thank you for showing us how to identify wild blueberries
And harvest cranberries hidden in bogs.
And sharing with us how to use Sumac to ward off fevers and colds.
And thank you for introducing us to Pokeweed
So, we could use its ink to sign treaties
We had no intention of keeping.
So many promises…
We will protect your homelands,
(we are not calling them reservations…yet)
Your right to hunt, fish, gather on land we stole from you.
Don’t worry.
We’ve got it from here.
Celeste DeSario writes poetry to process and make sense of life’s events. Her work is featured in The New Verse News, The SportsScribe, The Changing Times, The Ekphrastic Review, The Dissident Voice, and Three-Line Poetry. She will not be celebrating Columbus Day.