Picture credit http://www.firstnations.eu/indian_land.htm featured online firstnations.eu. "No Justice on Stolen Land," protest placard. Photo: anon
Poem is dedicated to Indigenous Elder Scholar, Myron Standing Bear and his struggle to receive his housing that was stolen from him by members of the San Francisco Housing Authority . He went from #1 to #564 on the S.F.H.A. Housing Waiting List for being Indian.
“We don’t work with Indians!”
“Never have, never will!" Is what they told him!”
Housing, a human right.
Houselessness, a moral wrong
Landlessness and colonization on a waiting list
Housing, a human right, but under authority while poor
A Day of Displacement to a dying indigenous scholar
Landlessness and colonization on a waiting list
No love from the world, except from his two sons
With only a car to call a comfort zone
By day, by night, asleep, with a growing fear
That one day
"Should I fail to awake, and my heart fails to beat
"Who then to care for my two sons?"
Where will the little land I call a car will go?
Landlessness and colonization on a waiting list
Thanksgiving was Thanks-taking.
Taking from one race to the other, and others.
“You’re illegal! You’re lazy! You’re inferior!”
“This land is ours to own. This is only yours to rent!”
Not apart of, but in an apartment. Housing Authority.
Who should dictate where one must stay?
Must one decide, then dictate by race and class
Of where one must lay?
Landlessness and colonization on a waiting list