You Can’t
<>
you can have it
it isn’t mine to give
but you can have it
I don’t know who it belongs to
so take it
<>
the land rights
aren’t really protected
well enough
to balance the profits you offer
what is good for the most
is more important
than what is sacred for a few
you can have it
<>
there’s no need for consultation
what do they know
about business anyway
superstitious paganism
is always pointless
in the face of cultural expediency
they only want to preserve their comforts
by denying you yours
so take it
<>
do what you have to get it
just because it is theirs
doesn’t mean anything
to anybody
expect the press
the cellphone gawkers
twitter won’t save anyone
you don’t have a reputation
worth protecting anyway
so take it
<>
it’s not mine to give
but not theirs to keep either
yet they are keeping it
no matter what the cost
to you
<>
The law isn’t as permanent as expected. There is always a political party whose agenda is to undo laws of the past – the repeal of Prohibition is an example. There are rumblings about rolling back lgbtqia rights, dispensing with employment equality, with discrimination. Laws regarding women’s bodies decided by men. So it’s no wonder the history of land rights is rife with contradictions & continued colonist imperialism.
My family claimed the land you lived on for centuries because you had no deed, no proof of ownership, so now it’s ours. Or was until some sly stranger juggled mortgage papers to take it out from under our noses, too. How dare he defraud the people who defrauded you to get the land.
As I recall I wrote this partially in response to the inclusion of land acknowledgements in various settings – a Stratford productions, poetry readings. As if the acknowledgements could undo what had been done. I see churches with rock gardens filled with children’s shoes to memorialize the children who died in the Residential Schools but wonder if that is as effective as a #.
When the Spanish conquered the Inca’s they demolished the Inca temples & built Catholic cathedrals on the ruins to show that primitive society the beauty of civilization. Clearly they were unaware that there were complex cultures that preceded the Inca’s by nearly 10,000 years. Native Americans built cities laid out to reflect the movement of both the the sun, the moon & the stars, not where it was best to put a Starbucks.
Civilizations come & go, come & go. Because we can’t undo the past doesn’t mean we should forget it. History repeats itself, progress isn’t fair, the present is mine to live not to give. As the song says, in the end we’re all dust in the wind.
TOpoet 