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Declassified History: Columbus did not discover America

by Kim Bennett



America avoids the truth.
Ignoring the horror stories,
Oblivious to the terror it creates
in the world.
Only teaching children about
Separate water fountains
Bus seats.
Dark
white
black
light.
Blind to history
Not colour.


Ignoring the beatings,
maybe a few paragraphs
read aloud by a stuttering student
unable to read because its not cool to be smart.
Or no one paid him much attention.
One child left behind.
As most are.


Insert the same stories into every
brainwashed head.
Rosa Parks
Matthew Shepard
I have a dream.


A political scheme.
Focus only on those who fight to be known,
The other stories are left alone.


The cruelty of this world should be acknowledged,
Scribbled in every school book,
A guaranteed warning to the future.


Ignorance is paradise.
And a device to create an ignorant society
Who never question authority.


How can you regret the past when the past is not known?
How can you change what is ignored?


Tell me about Luis Rodriguez
The Chicano Movement
and Cesar Chavez.
Luis, a man always running,
Chased for his heritage, something he should be
proud of.
Constantly demeaned by police who only desire power.
The supposed good guys of the, ironic, City of Angels.


And Chavez, his hunger strike.
Fight back!
Peacefully.
The first and only Mexican-American with his own holiday.
Celebrated in limited states.
.

Why isnt this taught to every person?


Teach me of Elisabeth Mann, who looked up to the sky
To see dense, somber smoke colouring the air black,
Floating, unharmed through the spiked thorns of the barbed wire
Curling around Auztwich.
Standing, half-naked, head shaven,
Listening to the laughter of a Nazi soldier
As he pointed toward the murky liberation
And said
There! There are your parents!
The only way out of Auztwich
Is through the smoke stacks.


Brandon Teena
Transgender
There's an image burned into my mind, His head thrusting backward
Smashing into the wall behind him,
Struck down by hate in the shape of a cylinder.
A bullet striking open eyes.


Teach that America is not perfect!
Learn that ignorance may cause your own bliss
and the ultimate agony for others.


We have to fight back with learning,
with words.
Injustice! Equality!
Stop hating!
Start teaching!
And never
Never be silent!

08/30/2006

Author's Note: I haven't been writing much lately, hopefully that will chance now that I'm back in school and I'm not taking a poetry class. But I'm annoyed that I learn things so late in life because the government decides what I get to learn. I wanted to know about the Chicano Movement before I turned 18, not after. That's unacceptable. Oh and the opening could be better, any suggestions?

Posted on 08/30/2006
Copyright © 2024 Kim Bennett

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Angela Nuzzo on 08/30/06 at 06:22 AM

This is very well done. Good choices for the details about the people. I like your stanza configurations. They keep your eyes moving & because they are not uniform in shape, it makes it interesting. I don't know if you did it on purpose, but I see a face in the first 3 stanzas. ??? Maybe you could mention something in the beginning about the US keeping secrets or not telling the truth. This would then connect to the end with your great last line "Never never be silent!"

Posted by Jersey D Gibson on 01/16/10 at 12:52 PM

in truth? Keep it the way it is. Like a shotgun blast to the temple, this has found its way in my head. I do know of the people you talk about save Brandon Teena, and I'm acutally glad of both the intelligence of the verse, and the acknowledgement of the reader. Sadly, what you say I believe to be quite true. Point in case is the city of Atlanta in Georgia; no heritage, no history. Margaret Mitchell's house was burnt to the ground by the indigents living there, and Gone With The Wind is like one of the top 5 selling books in the world. We forget our history, we forget our mistakes and our achievements.

I wonder if Martin Luther King Jr. holds the record for having the most streets named after a person? I hope so.

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