Collector

a poem to settlers

This poem is inspired by the #settlercollector movement, a way to support Indigenous folks on social media who get attacked by trolls and well-meaning Liberals. You can read more about it here.

Collector

You always come for us—

Into our words,

Into our spaces,

Sometimes into our minds.

We cannot escape you,

Because the settler way

Is difficult to escape,

So we inhale you like bad air.

You show up

With hateful speech

And a malicious grin

And words made for violence.

You show up

And remind us

Why we don’t trust

Anyone but the earth.

So we collect you—

We collect all the speeches

And the grins

And the violence in words.

We collect evidence.

And one day,

We will roll out the scroll

And name the pain.

One day,

We will roll out the scroll

And you will be there

And we will name your violence.

One day,

We will roll out the scroll

And everyone will know

That we live beyond you.

You always come for us—

But one day, we will return for you

Along with everyone who believed

That the world could be better.

We will return for you

And when you say you didn’t know

We will remind you

That you always knew what a soul was.

We will will return for you

And we will remind you

That while you chose violence

We chose survival and thriving.

We will roll out the scroll

And plant it in the dirt

Like seeds

And you will weep with us.

And when a field of wildflowers

Grows in its place

We will hold your hands

And you will find your soul again.

We will collect you,

Gather you up,

And remind you of what once was

And what will always be.

You always come for us—

But one day,

There will only be wildflowers

And the clean water they drink from.

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Onward, friends, together.