BY SHARON MARTIN
You want to sell our public lands
and pristine places,
turn public service
into for-profit business
until everything is owned
by a handful of old men
with nothing invested
and nothing to lose,
paid for by the sweat of the rest of us,
those to whom this land belongs.
We already stole it
fair and square,
with our guns and plows
and relentless westward movement
from the natives whose ancient clans
called themselves the people.
First people.
You want the blacks to be subservient,
women to be chattel again,
Indians to disappear.
Something went wrong
in that first attempt to erase them.
Something went wrong
in the centuries of owning, silencing,
burning and hanging the wise ones.
Something went wrong
when one of them squatted
in the White House.
No way he can be legit
when a handful of rich folk,
enriched and empowered to govern
by a smaller handful of even richer folk,
didn’t give him permission
to be the most powerful man
in the world.
You want your place of privilege sealed
by cutting wages,
cutting services,
leaving us the jobs
of staying in the shadows,
keeping quiet,
paying the taxes,
dying on the battlefields,
laboring for your gain,
in this plutocracy
that you’ve convinced too many voters
is their American Dream, too.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
