Columbus Day 2092

My poem originally published in Studies in American Indian Literatures (Summer 2008)

COLUMBUS DAY 2092

the letters flew

on Columbus Day

little messengers

landing on porches and desks

to tell the Europeans

they must leave

must imitate the salmon

and return to their homes

the Europeans had never heard

of the company on the letterhead:

Wovoka Real Estate Investment Trust

the talking heads on cable networks

were puzzled at first

they thought it was a Polish company

the trust had been hidden beneath

a coat of other names

a coat of papers and papers and papers

layers of shell companies

shells had once served the California natives

so well and had become useful again

the Europeans had been tricked

at their own game, with their own magic

-- contracts, signatures, laws, money

hundreds of paper masks were pulled

back to reveal one dancer beneath

fueled by a century of bouncing balls

spinning wheels

thick chips caressed and stacked

by the blue-haired

and the sun-starved

the Wovoka Real Estate Investment Trust

had bought every piece of America

that had been for sale

secretly

patiently

and it was all for sale

eventually

the famous Indian poet and Hollywood Squares regular

Sherman Running Jump Shot used his own

personal wealth to buy a bar

called the Crazy Horse

and close its doors on Columbus Day

-- and then set it on fire

CNN broadcast his smiling announcement:

“The Happy Hour of American History is over, folks!

We don’t care where you go, but you can’t stay here!”

the ghost dance vision was not fully realized

not all the Europeans left

since many were not Europeans anymore

they were husbands, wives, cousins, children

of the joint owners of the trust

many others stayed as well

but they paid rent

they obeyed the rules of the new landlords

everything was different

after that

everything