Like Custer
I’m flustered
By native invasions
Retaliations
On white savior
Salvations
Creation stories
Far less gory
Than mine
Shiny finer things I
Glorify
They decline
The divine to them is
What I chop down to spend
And what I comprehend
Merely land to be tended
They savagely fight to death
To defend it
No war declaration
Nor forced relocation
Or rampant contagion
Ensures subjugation
No integration
Or assimilation
Will ever equate them
As part of our nation
Expanding its greatness
From city to sea
So their choices are leave
Or accept the treaty
Bend the Wounded Knee
Come quietly
And relinquish
Their rain-dancing,
Flame-trancing
Visions
Extinguished
In favor of Manifest
Destiny’s best
Blessed Western
Exceptionalism’s
Excess
Steering clear
Of inferior
Cultures we fear
As we pave new frontiers
Atop their
Trails of Tears