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History Lesson Jeannette Armstrong

The document tells a story through abstract language and imagery about colonizers arriving in North America and the impacts on indigenous people and the land. It references topics like Christopher Columbus, settlers bringing gifts and diseases, the building of cities and infrastructure, and the lasting effects on civilizations.

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Swathi Krishnadas
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654 views1 page

History Lesson Jeannette Armstrong

The document tells a story through abstract language and imagery about colonizers arriving in North America and the impacts on indigenous people and the land. It references topics like Christopher Columbus, settlers bringing gifts and diseases, the building of cities and infrastructure, and the lasting effects on civilizations.

Uploaded by

Swathi Krishnadas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

banished by coyote to get their men

carried her eternally bowling child and to build a new world


tied to her back
as they moved forever through the tree tops Pioneers and traders
m o ther crooning t o the child bring gifts
how sometim es she would swoop down in anger Smallpox, Seagram s
scattering berries off bushes and rice krispies

Maggie told me I had heard Civilization has reached


the wind woman sing the promised land
she told me that I would rem ember that song always
because the trees were m y teacher Between the snap crackle pop
of smoke stacks
I remember the song clearly and multicolored rive rs
but it is always Maggie's voice singing swelling with flower powered zee
her songs are farmers sowing sk ulls and bones
filling m y world and m iners
with the moan of old dark pines pulling from gaping holes
as the wind woman green paper faces
that sings to me of a smiling English lady
fo llows
with her hungry child The colossi
wherever I go in which t hey trust
1978, 1991 while burying
breathing forests and fields
beneath concrete and steel
History Lesson stand shaking fists
waiting to mutilate
Out of the belly of Christopher's ship whole civilizations
a mob bursts ten gen erations at a blow
Running in all directions
Pulling furs off animals Somewhere amon g the remains
Shooting buffalo of skinless animals
Shooting each other is t he termination·
left and right to a long journey
and unho ly search
Father m ean well for the power
waves his m akeshift wand glimpsed in a garden
fo rgives saucer-eyed Indians forever closed
forever lost
Red coated knights 1979, 1991
gallop across the prairie

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