i mean,
i can see how christopher columbus
“discovered” the Americas from
his perspective.

the same way that
we “discover”
things that are
|new to us|
like space, or the ocean
or a new ******* restaurant.

but if i hike into
the woods and
“discover” some area
of land, or a lake, or a cabin,

the fact that i am seeing it for the first
time with my own eyes
does not mean
that thing did not
exist before i saw it.

there is nothing wrong with
exploration - it is vital
and necessary and exciting.

but exploration does
not equal colonization.
exploration does not
necessitate ownership,
theft, or ******.

it just doesn’t.

so good job, columbus,
for being an explorer and ****.
but maybe let’s try
to see the w h o l e picture.

because if i “discover” your cabin
in the woods and
decide it’s mine, **** you,
take the cabin,
enslave your family,

then have a yearly
“celebration”
where i celebrate my
“discovery”...

i’m just gonna go out
on a limb here
and assume
your enslaved family and their
ancestors wouldn’t
much appreciate that ****?

so let’s just say what we mean.
it’s good to explore.
thanks for being a *******
explorer, columbus. we like
this land, fine.

but we aren’t going to
celebrate the
systematic theft
of land, murdering and
enslaving of other human beings, ok?

unless that’s your thing, in which case
you should just be honest about it
and scream it from the rooftops.

let’s just stop pretending things
are the way we want them to be, and
acknowledge how they actually are.

is that not something we can agree on?!
ugh! i’m just sayin’!

every time
a c o l o r
catches my eye
(which is very often)
in my mind
i instantly analyze it
break it down into its primary basics
then reconstruct it
in my mind with paint.

for example,
what first i took as pink,
upon further gazing
is really more of an orange.

start with white
add |this| amount of yellow
then this tiny minuscule
shard of (red)
together, white and red make pink.
yellow and red make orange.
pink and orange are different
points on
a spectrum.

and you can see how
close
orange and
p i n k are.
and how so very
far away.

and then that
blue-purple light
juxtaposed -
that is another thing
entirely.

for a second
i imagined
myself trying to
  actively resist
the imprint
  you are pressing down
like paper
fleeing
from the
impending ink
soaked stamp.

in order to share
at least one person
needs to have s o m e t h i n g.

and someone else must
notice and
want some kind of part of that
s o m e t h i n g.

then both have to
openly acknowledge
these terms,

in order for the sharer
to know
that they
need to
let go
of
s o m e t h i n g.

in the end,
   even Odo gave in
to the desire
  to rejoin the
      great link