Not
"Land ^ for Sale"
By Teresa (Scharp) Bey
Funny
white man
come again.
Him want
trade um
land
for
gold stones.
Silly man
no see
land
everywhere
-want mine.
Me put
in bag;
give um
land.
Me take
gold stones
to
Great Lake
see um
skip.
Best trade
ever made
-stone
skip good.
(2000; based on a true story.)
"Currently I am a nursing student who will graduate in May. I wrote this poem several years ago for a poetry class at UW-Parkside. The assignment was to write a poem in someone else's voice, and I chose the voice of an ancestor. My great-great grandfather was an Ottawa chief who signed the treaty for the sale of land (I have a copy of the actual government document), but because of communication deficits and cultural differences he was unaware of what he was actually trading and what that would mean for his family. I believe it is a very powerful message, and I thought I was able to communicate this through the stereotypical use of language and the idea of misunderstanding that it conveys."
* * * * * * * * * *
"Lovers"
Anonymous
We return to this desolate field,
the soil is dry,
the air is thin and hot.
I struggle for breath --
my lips parched and cracked.
Once it was green
even though the stones were there.
It must have been a good year with rain.
But now
this barren land stretches before us
never ending
in the brilliant light.
Slowly
we bend to earth,
pick our stones
and throw them at one another.
