The Legend of My People

The legend of my people

Swept under torrents of napalm

Behind stars of lead

Drinking storms of Orange

Subsistence of my blood

Obscured by molding bread

By confabulations of scars

By pale faces on movie screens

In shades of green, playing heroes

Or in shades of umber

Playing me

The daughter of a serpent father

And a bird mother

Whose masquerades

Of slivered eyes

And the skin of lepers

Seals a maw of burgeoning flame

Which will swallow fortresses

And devour monarchies 

Whose sardonic smiles

And good boy haircuts

Have denied words to a people with none

And to a people with little

Who waded through mines

And carried children on their backs

To build something from nothing

Today, to everyone with blanched memories

Tools, options, delete history

Whose image is corrupted

But not forgotten

Whose point is dull

But not useless

Whose mouth is shut

But not silent

The legend of my people 

Will not hide under corpses

Or letters of rejection

Melded into my throat

When I lay underground