The Poetry Marathon

For Aphrodite

For a long time

I was afraid

to open my heart.

Too long have I kept close

and built up a wall.

You showed me it’s ok

it’s ok to let out your emotions.

That I am in a safe place

to just be me again,

You let me pour out

my every burden to you

and you took those burdens to Ares.

In turn he sliced them

and gave me strength.

You said, “you’re only human.

And that’s ok.”

You were there to wipe the tears

and help me stand back up.

To help me find my inner strength again.

For that Lady Aphrodite I thank you.

To Hecate

My goddess of the liminal space

the greeter of cross roads.

I am in awe of your guidance

for clearing the way to my path.

You showed me what could be

and what is to be

with a forked road ahead.

I felt your energy carefully push me,

a motherly tap to say:

I am here if you need me.

I am here as your torch,

call if you need to sever ties

and I will be there,

Words alone cannot thank you enough,

Mother Hecate.

Thank you for being patient with me.

Thank You

Thank you to my spirit team.

You have been there

since my birth

watching me grow

and to learn to accept you.

You have given me strength

when I felt like I was at rock bottom.

You made sure that I was kept safe

when I had lost hope.

Your energies surround me

every day as I doubt my worth.

I can feel your concern,

my heart sinks and my chest tightens.

As I fight to regain control,

I know you surround me

with your love.

I thank you my Gods/Goddesses,

if it weren’t for you

I wouldn’t be where I am now.

An Aquarius Love II

He is my pillar

when I am about to fall.

When my thoughts

reach outer space

he is there

to pull me back to earth.

He takes my worries

and tosses them

to the ends of the earth.

Pats my head

as if to say “There, there.”

If the world

gets too much

too handle,

he’ll stand in front

and let me breath.

For once

I am not

being judged

by my mistakes.

He just smiles

and let me be.

An Aquarius love

is something out of this world.

Just like their tarot, the Star,

they know how to bring in

a fresh start.

He is just that to me.

A Friendly Reminder

Not all Native Americans were headdresses

and live in teepees

smoking peyote

and waiting for a vision.

Some live on top of Mesas

in pueblos.

Not all Indigenous people

speak the same language.

Just like not all Asians

have the same language.

We are the Indigenous people

of this land,

with different tribes

and our own set governments.

Here’s a friendly reminder.

Don’t dress up as “Native Americans”

for Halloween.

It’s all about respect.

Code Talkers IV:

A small group of men

all huddled in a foxhole

making history.

Devising a code

to trick the enemies and

help save the day.

Code Talkers III

Collection

Of carefully chosen words to

Deceive the

Enemy and a secret code

That saved the

Army and other militia.

Luck was on our side, the code

Kept our

Enemies guessing this

Radicle

Set of indigenous words.

Sterilization was the Plan

Natasha Romanoff.

You know that name,

the spy from Marvel.

She saw herself as a monster

because she was sterilized.

The question is:

Did you know

Indigenous females

were also sterilized?

The brown skin,

black hair,

“foreign” language

and pagan beliefs

were not ideal.

Native Americans

were still seen as “dirt”

and the less there were

the better it was.

Paper ads tricked

soon to be mothers

and females to gather

for free screenings.

The staff looked at them

as heathens, disgusting creatures

that needs to wiped off the planet.

Procedures without consent happened.

Thousands of Native ladies

were no longer “women”.

They were now sterilized

and could not bare children.

Future torch bearers

for our cultures were

whisked away in mere seconds.

Futures Taken Away

Children are gifts

from the Divine Beings.

They are here to help

usher in new generations.

But they were not always seen

as the generations to come.

Even more so

if you were not white,

especially

if you were a pagan.

It was decided

that the devil

was the cause of it all

and the children’s souls

were corrupted

and needed to be “Fixed”.

That’s when soldiers marched in

and took all the kids

and shoved them into trains

to be carried away to a school.

There they were slapped,

kicked, yanked, cursed at

for talking their language.

Long hair was only for women,

so they chopped the boys hair

and forced to keep their mouths shut.

Many perished from heartache,

others endured

but were unrecognizable by their parents.

Those that passed

were buried in heaps

under their school,

as if they were

dust swept under a rug.

The future of Native Americans

and Canada became dimmer

as more children were dragged off.

The culture and language began to fade away.

MMIW: Pocahontas

Here’s another sad tale

of an Indigenous girl

stolen from her land

and forced into marriage.

Many of you know of her

from Disney’s movie:

Pocahontas.

It displayed her as a proper age

and was in love with John Smith.

I too was taken away by this fantasy

that was fed to us.

I relearned her story in High School,

where in History Class another Native girl

did a report on Pocahontas.

But the school project was not the entire truth.

In contrary to Disney,

Pocahontas was only 11.

A young girl, barely a young woman.

She lived in fear of the settlers and soldiers,

because rape was a popular sport.

When John saw the young girl

with long black hair

running around with her friends.

He wanted her.

So, he took her at the age of 15.

She was forced into marriage,

was raped by men.

All the while she saw her own husband murdered.

A broken soul, beaten and scorned,

was forced into another marriage

and was given an English name, Rebecca.

Like Sacagawea, she also died in her 20’s.

Only to have her story romanticized and condensed.