day FOURTEEN HUNDRED and FIFTY

Original Sin

We flushed the natives out like foxes from the brush,
fought and killed and threw them into every kind of prison.
We tore children from their arms, pushed them to the edges
of our culture and then we held them down.

Stolen lives from Africa, we locked them in as well,
disdained them for their shining skin and muscles
that made us rich. We cleaved children from their mothers,
kept them at the edges of our culture and held them down.

Others who sought shelter at our border, we let them in
to work for bits, called them takers, wrested children
from their fathers and let them die in cages. We kept them
at the edges of our culture and then we held them down.

Now we call them rapists, thugs and murderers.
Now we call ourselves the injured parties.

--Tamara Madison