Colonization

—After On Gardens by Rick Barot

I read about the garden,

the friars who romped in the village 

plucking white flowers

and feel bad for the pillaged girls.

They were plucked like Linda,

an Amish girl nearby,

kidnapped, raped and killed. 

Young, unmarried, innocent,

Linda was used for sex, discarded 

in a tarp underground to rot

after being finished her off. 

Her family and community

manned a phone booth for months,

waiting for the girl’s call. 

Colonial settlers ravaged 

American Indians and our land 

the same way the friars

pollinated white flowers.

I would shape change each girl

into a huntress,

a black hawk with sharp talons

and a dagger beak.

Or form them into inviolate rocks

in a garden cushioned by softest moss.

Or pour them out as white sand

in a temple garden, 

a raked maze of gentle curves

and straight lines to nibble 

light and cast shadows. 

Oh happy girl. When she blooms black.

When she blooms rock.

When she blooms sand.

When we protect her. 

https://www.verse-virtual.org/2022/February/bruck-ingrid-2022-february.html

Date Published: February 1, 2022