Turista
What if I told you
that you were only warming up to my ideas?
If I’m Sacagawea, then what does that make you?
a Colonizer?

Name another river after yourself
And I’ll be rewritten in history.

people will say
I only “helped”
even though it’s a silenced truth
I was the only one with the first hand knowledge
to traverse terrain you’ve never encountered
i’ve tried to prevent you from being a scandalous footnote in history
Donner, party of none

when was the last time someone
was careless with you
because they were more powerful and you were less powerful?
Is it weekly, daily, monthly, yearly?
do you struggle to remember, to believe what your ancestors shove in your face everyday?
Trying to counter the horror of unspeakable harm with
voices that land like the brightness of the sun?

And despite all this, the fire set inside of me long ago extinguishes every drop of relief that’s offered.
It keeps them warm, but secretly, I long for water.
No, they can’t know what its like to labor for others
that labor
reserved for the less powerful
that leaves nothing for of oneself
but that footnote!

Is it any wonder why our brownness is shameful
but your tan is beautiful?
It would cost too much to know, to relieve us of that labor,
and extinguish that fire
so, you do the next best thing, and
warm yourself up to it.