Boots Steps
for Fred D'Aguiar

aren’t we part of
the calamity of Columbus
can we expect divorce

he came here and we came into being
beans, beam of light, beam of life

someone ignited at a gas station
a gallon of gas and a cigarette lighter
or was it a match

Columbus has made
all that has happen since possible

are we saying that he is or was God
were we created then

is the Caribbean the Garden of Eden
was 1492 not just day-before-yesterday

is the intestines of history
not a much longer road
a much longer journey

should we submit to the knife
scalpel even sharper
than a night on a slave ship

have that length of history,
of our alimentary canal, removed

can we live without slavery
that length of time in us
like a serpent coiled inside us
is it time we killed it

itching and scratching
for centuries and since
unable to find cure

about time we did


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
11:13 p.m. 27.01.08