Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Hey Columbus! You step out of your sport utility vehicle... Tuesday Poem this week


Thomas Hubbard slams into Columbus Day in the US on Tuesday Poem this week. A mixed-blood, of (probably) Cherokee, Miami, Irish and English ancestry, Thomas Hubbard is a Seattle slam poet and T Clear, also from Seattle, has posted his poem on the NZ-based poetry hub. 

She says: I heard Thomas Hubbard read this on Columbus Day — perfectly topical and addressing the myriad questions that had been running through my head on that day — an American holiday — chiefly, why is this a holiday?

Without pretense, Thomas Hubbard nails it here. The language ain't fancy, and neither are the sentiments, which contrast well with everything that Columbus represents:  the elitist, gas-guzzling, resource-consuming, earth-desecrating powers-that-be run amok. In essence, our ruling class. The phrase that comes to mind is American Exceptionalism, for whose offensiveness we may well thank/blame Columbus himself. 

The poem begins....

You step out of your sport utility vehicle and
begin fueling on pump number three while I
finish up on pump number four.

You eye my braid, my old car, my flute bag
in the rear window, and that expression comes
onto your pale, clean-shaven face.

You seem upset that I don't shuffle, step aside,
show embarrassment about my dark skin, and a
why must I have feathers in plain view?


To read the rest of the poem and see it read!  go here. 

No comments: