The Colonizer Has Emotions

I was on the coast and you had a boat,
You were coming to kill my people.
You said it wasn’t personal,
But you made it so very so.

The colonial gaze
Has given very few shelter
For life settled in sentience,
Long before whites set up shop.

Nobody believed you when you
Tried to sell us the Jesus Love,
On the steps of the gallows that
You built for our brightest and finest.

We will turn back your cash crops
And simplistic monotheism.
There’s no reason to be forgiven,
When it was you that invented sin.

I took my daughter to your doctor
And he made her a patient
Then we paid for the cleanliness
That you made with your hands.

As you told us you had saved us,
We wondered what from?
But it was too late for questions,
As we had money to flee from by then.

I was born sober and able to see the stars.
But now my dreams are mediated,
By your questions and copycat images;
Soldiers train tracks iron and invisible germs.

The universe once conspired to make us happy,
Now it’s the object of inquiring minds.
Bring me your mirror master
Because I want to look just like you.