| General Poetry posted January 3, 2013 | Chapters: |
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Uneven Trade (Totem Poem)
A chapter in the book Commentary and Philosophy
First Encounter
by Treischel
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"Hello"
"Welcome" The Red man said, As the White man stepped onto the shore. "I claim this land for the Queen" he said, and then he stuck his flag Into the hot sand. Red man saw their armor gleam, steel swords, fire spewing rods, and mighty beasts they rode upon, horses they were called. Deciding in fear to make friends with the strange gods, he gave the sacred tobacco, the corn, much gold, his land. He did whatever White man said, sharing sweat and bounty and in return, White man shook his hand, gave him beads and pots, Warm wool blankets full of cholera. Then they loaded their boats, sailed back to their Queen. While the helpless Red man got horribly sick and died in the millions |
I tried to make this like a Totem Pole. Call it Totem Verse. It is actually a Concrete Poem.
Jared Diamond, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, noted that "diseases introduced by Europeans, spread from tribe to tribe far in advance of Europeans themselves, killing an estimates 95 percent of the Native American population. The most populous and highly organized societies in North America, the Mississippian chiefdoms, disappeared in that way between 1492 and the 1600s, even before the Europeans themselves made their first settlement on the Mississippi River."
A true tragedy that went mostly unnoticed by the "Civilized" world. Far worse than the Black Plague that wiped our 30 to 60% of the European population.
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and 2 member cents. Jared Diamond, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, noted that "diseases introduced by Europeans, spread from tribe to tribe far in advance of Europeans themselves, killing an estimates 95 percent of the Native American population. The most populous and highly organized societies in North America, the Mississippian chiefdoms, disappeared in that way between 1492 and the 1600s, even before the Europeans themselves made their first settlement on the Mississippi River."
A true tragedy that went mostly unnoticed by the "Civilized" world. Far worse than the Black Plague that wiped our 30 to 60% of the European population.
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