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after columbus came in the name of God
& the reign of spain & his crew did what
was done to tainos arawaks mayans
after cortez & his mounted cortege
undid the aztecs & others of los indios
& recast the conquered cultures into ingots
gold altars & coins
after pious puritans became populous
& plotted to perpetrate genocide
against the connecticut pequot
who are we the people but a nation
of emigrated immigrants? who
are we the people to oppressively oversee
the exclusion of k’iche’-speaking
tzeltal-speaking mam-speaking spanish-speaking
portuguese-speaking english-speaking
danish-speaking french-speaking people
of color whose central american south american
antillean & african ancestors were already in or
forcibly brought sold & bought in diverse places
in the americas long before arrivals
of europe’s “huddled masses”?
who are we the people to keep people
from cropping the “amber waves of grain”
from making hay of the leaves of grass
in the promised land of our anthems
& all-american poetry
from working as rightful migrants at any
righteous endeavors to better themselves including
“in the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored”
or from harvesting the fields from which we get
“our daily bread”?????
Lord!!!