Cowboys and Indians

Like Custer

I’m flustered

By native invasions

Retaliations

On white savior

Salvations

Creation stories

Far less gory

Than mine

Shiny finer things I

Glorify

They decline

The divine to them is

What I chop down to spend

And what I comprehend

Merely land to be tended

They savagely fight to death

To defend it

No war declaration

Nor forced relocation

Or rampant contagion

Ensures subjugation

No integration

Or assimilation

Will ever equate them

As part of our nation

Expanding its greatness

From city to sea

So their choices are leave

Or accept the treaty

Bend the Wounded Knee

Come quietly

And relinquish

Their rain-dancing,

Flame-trancing

Visions

Extinguished

In favor of Manifest

Destiny’s best

Blessed Western

Exceptionalism’s

Excess

Steering clear

Of inferior

Cultures we fear

As we pave new frontiers

Atop their

Trails of Tears