Absence and Antinomy, v3

[wasellajam]

Hi, river, while I appreciate that the unemotional tone of the poem is intentional, its unnerving when the genocide at the root of both countries is described without at least a line about grief. The poem inspired grief in me so maybe that's fine, it's as cold as the conquerors. Some notes.

Absence and Antinomy


I cannot say which system is the worse. This line could be used to at least hint at the actual act.
In America, there was simply no sign that the pot
was ever owned by someone else: most places

had names in the tongues of their conquerors, most faces I'm not sure why the poem is in the past.
were white or black or even my shape and color, The phrasing here makes for open-ended thought.
and there were no honors---no monuments nor exhibits

outside of museums---afforded to their first nations, See note below, maybe historical sites instead of museums.
while in Australia a heritage more diverse
is championed by place names more byzantine, statues in public

more angular, murals more nonrealistic, and beggars
more universally dark, squat, and ragged. Good way to bring in current racism, I'm not sure why the American version is more subtle.
Is it better to suffer such contradiction
or to be so thoroughly forgotten?

Another NaPM entry.

The premise that no trace is left of the original inhabitants of the US seems off to me. I live in the Northeastern US where you can't drive 5 miles without running into half a dozen Native American words: roads, rivers, mountain ranges, towns and therefore schools and parks. The link below gives you the idea, the state I live in has its own link listed as do other states. We use these words everyday, which may be even more offensive to surviving descendants, I don't know. I think they're busy fighting bigger battles.

Wiki List here

Thanks for bringing this out of NaPM, an interesting poem.