This piece contains graphic language. \u00a0Please know, spirits of my sisters who have lived or live this life that I mean this only as a form of respect and that I burn tobacco to pray that you will be free one day. \u00a0Spirits of my indigenous sisters, who have been taken by predators in this country and other countries, blessed be you and rest.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rita Joe<\/em><\/p>\n (In honour of George Ryga\u2019s character from the play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe<\/em>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Never shoulda told \u2018em I heard voices \u2013 they said it was my head but \u2013 I know it is the spirit of my ancestors and they are angry with my \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKIN\u2019 AT?<\/p>\n I AIN\u2019T NO WHORE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 !<\/p>\n YOU COULDN\u2019T FUCKING AFORD ME, BITCH!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n -angry with my habits\u2026I tried, you know, to quit the booze and the dope but it helps out here \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n KEEP YOUR FUCKING HANDS<\/p>\n OFF MY SHIT!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n -at night when I am trying to stay awake cuz if you sleep here, you\u2019re fucked!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We are being hunted out here, I\u2019m telling you, I had lots of friends go missing or die cuz no one gives a fuck about drunk Indians anymore cuz they got our land all ready.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FUCKING COPS<\/p>\n DON\u2019T CARE IF WE<\/p>\n O.D.!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But, you know, I never wanted to be here \u2013 I wasn\u2019t born to snort pills and suck cock \u2013<\/p>\n I had dreams once, too.\u00a0 No one says they wanna be a crank head when they grow up or take punches from rich men \u2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PICK A FUCKING COLOUR,<\/p>\n ANY FUCKING COLOUR.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They all want to take from me what they get at home for free \u2013 with a side of \u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tried to tell the cops about my dad<\/p>\n my uncle<\/p>\n my pimp<\/p>\n but we don\u2019t count out here \u2013 our cunts don\u2019t count cuz we get high and we drink and we fuck for money.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I STILL FUCKING MATTER!<\/p>\n WHAT THE FUCK YOU LOOKIN\u2019 AT?!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Best friend went to the pig farm, eh? \u2013 that Picton farm \u2013 I know it.\u00a0 Someone said they found her DNA.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you know they got you \u2013 the DNA.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Coulda been me, eh?\u00a0 Coulda been any of us here cuz the fucking cops don\u2019t care that the voices in my head is my great-grandmother telling me to watch out for uniforms \u2013<\/p>\n cops<\/p>\n and<\/p>\n clerks<\/p>\n and<\/p>\n priests.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, anyways, thanks for the money, and not tellin\u2019 me how to spend it cuz the nights are long here and life is short here for us Indian bitches on the Downtown East Side.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n KEEP WALKIN\u2019, BITCH!<\/p>\n THIS AIN\u2019T NO FUCKIN\u2019 CIRCUS!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One day, I fucking tell you, one day I\u2019ll get outta here and go home \u2013 to the prairies and look to the big skies again \u2013 get away from these fucking mountains that hold me in\u2026like jail\u2026I fuckin\u2019 hate jail\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019m goin\u2019 home one day cuz that\u2019s what I dream about when I hear great-grandma\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (c) R. L. Elke 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This piece contains graphic language. \u00a0Please know, spirits of my sisters who have lived or live this life that I mean this only as a form of respect and that I burn tobacco to pray that you will be free one day. \u00a0Spirits of my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":712,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24290"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24677,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24290\/revisions\/24677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}