Responding to Victor

I.

I am a                       bleeding
white woman            heart

                                  liberal
  
sitting in a recliner 
imagining forgiveness
envisioning an educational system
where truth includes 
telling
          on
             ourselves

II.

Could you forgive them, Mrs. Warren?

for specific atrocities, never

butchering mothers, 
babies in bellies
profaning female forms
dead and spread

vaginas: cut and dried hide 
covers for saddle horns
 
indigenous parts become
white man’s medicine
pubic scalps bring applause
conqueror’s eyes shine

I mean I know it was a long time ago, 
but could you forgive them if you was alive then?

me, plunging blades into soldiers’ breasts
until they take me from me, spent        no

no, Victor, not then

How ‘bout now, if you was Native now, could you forgive them?

holding onto hatred 
burns seething holes
through spirits
(don’t give them that)

forgiveness frees
it opens hearts—

open hearts 
spread kindness
and you already know 
how I feel about that 

Yeah, but you ain’t Native so you don’t know fer sure.

III.

Think about this, Victor—
In 1972, I was 10.  
In 1972, Montana added Article X Section 1 to its Constitution.

 “The state recognizes the distinct and unique 
cultural heritage of American Indians and 
is committed in its educational goals 
to the preservation of their cultural integrity.”

In my 1972 Montana classroom, we celebrated Columbus Day.
Manifest Destiny rose up, a noble beacon of light.
Tribal diversity never entered the room.
Constitutional law, denied.

In our 2010 classroom, we uncover the bullshit, Victor.
Just like Coyote scams feathers from ducks, 
the United States government scams people to impel ideologies.

We know what Columbus did.

Forgiveness?  
It’s nebulous.

Do I forgive the educational system for lying to me?  
No, It ticks me off.
But I’m doing something about it from within the system.
Get inside of the system Victor—figure out its workings.  
Only then, can you ferret out change.

Remember the ducks,
When they understood Coyote’s motives 
they averted his advances.

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A big thank you to the muses Big Tent Poetry inspires. The prompts offered at Big Tent get me thinking. This piece was difficult to get through. I almost didn't publish it. Something my friend Kate said nagged at me, and I hit the publish post button. "You can't censor yourself."

Here is the prompt:
Is there a question you are burning to ask someone? Is there a person (living or dead) you would love to have a conversation with? Maybe, as our IRL poet friend shared, you have had a conversation with someone that bears repeating (and examining through poetry’s sharp lens). Perhaps someone has posed a question to you that you simply, at the time, could not answer. Take some time this week and compose your answer in the form of a poem.

A high caliber of writing exists under the Big Tent. Be sure to visit for other takes on the prompt.