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After Wordsworth
by Rena Priest
The Indigenous poet
writes life-affirming poems
about daffodils.
Her audience says,
“But you’re oppressed.”
The Indigenous poet
writes poems of outrage
about oppression.
Nobody cares.
She gets depressed.
The Indigenous poet
gets requests for poems
about being Indigenous.
“But, all my poems are
about being Indigenous.”
The Indigenous poet
isn’t considered
an Indigenous poet,
because, “Shouldn’t you
write about genocide?”
The Indigenous poet
tries to write poems
about genocide.
Her poet spirit dies.
(Genocide gets the job done.)
The Indigenous poet says,
“Stang tse temxwila!”*
and writes about daffodils,
and the untouchable beauty
of living a poet’s life
* “What the hail.” This is the closest we get to a swear word in Xwlemi Chosen (Lummi Language).
From A Dozen Nothing, March 2021.
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