Stolen

She walks with tears, why?

When you look into her eyes you realize

That the American Flag

Can’t mean freedom

When red is the blood of its first people

You see in her eyes

            Broken ties

            Broken treaties

            Wounded hearts

            Wounded minds

            Wounded Knee

You see her. Red skin. Red blood. Red Indian.

She is granddaughter of an unrecognized war veteran

Who died bleeding red white and blue.

For who?

Her country forgot about her when Geronimo’s head was scalped, when AIM (American Indian Movement) took off their head bands, when Jim Thorpe’s medals were taken.

She’s the one selling broken jewelry sewn with tears.

She sees violence, sex abuse and drugs

Because somewhere in a book she read she was ‘discovered’

Because White people made a living by occupying land,

And the Indian made a living by dying.

Her cries echo aloud

Because she see Pocahontas, a princess

When really Pocahontas was a 12 year old girl given to a 40 year old man in exchange for her peoples land.

She cries because her land is stolen, bought by industry, money and greed.

She cries when it’s no longer a question of being civilized so much as it is sanity.

She cries but she lives

She survived.