Suburban White Man’s and Woman’s Reservation | Poetry of Mankh |Axisoflogic.com

hundreds of tv channels,
houses in a row,
each with a parcel of land
and something they probably don’t know

General Allotment Act[1] 1887 against the Natives
wasn’t divide & conquer (they’re still here)
rather subdivide and contain―
since 1947[2], suburbanites smitten by an imperial lure

supermarket and homeland depot
where people shop and banter
and get the latest stuff
instead of a community center

suburban White man’s and woman’s reservation
a cut above the rest,
sit back enjoy the hardworking comfort zone
at empire’s behest

so nice you barely notice,
so numb you don’t disagree
with the poison of the airwaves
and the lack of hug a tree

an open view of stars
from this subsector within the so-called Nation[3]―
in the ground a history of scars
due to land-theft and forced relocation

NOTES:
[1] The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887), authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians ... On February 8, 1887, the Dawes Allotment Act was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland. Responsible for enacting the division of the tribal reservations into plots of land for individual households, the Dawes Act was created by reformers to achieve six goals:

breaking up of tribes as a social unit,
encouraging individual initiatives,
furthering the progress of native farmers,
reducing the cost of native administration,
securing parts of the reservations as Indian land, and
opening the remainder of the land to white settlers for profit.

See here.

[2] “Levittown is the name of seven large suburban housing developments created in the United States and Puerto Rico by William Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning veterans and their new families, the communities offered attractive alternatives to cramped central city locations and apartments. The Veterans Administration and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) guaranteed builders that qualified veterans could buy housing for a fraction of rental costs. Production was modeled on assembly lines in 27 steps with construction workers trained to perform one step. A house could be built in one day when effectively scheduled. This enabled quick and economical production of similar or identical homes with rapid recovery of costs. Standard Levittown houses included a white picket fence, green lawns, and modern appliances. Sales in the original Levittown began in March 1947. 1,400 homes were purchased during the first three hours.” See here.

[3] The word-root meaning of “nation” is akin to: being born; considering the amount of death and destruction wrought by the USEmpire, Nation is not an appropriate word. Or as Bob Dylan sings in “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”: “That he not busy being born is busy dying.”

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”.

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