Female Rage Volume 1: a poem inspired by Thomas King and systemic racism

I am not the Indian you had in mind 

Wouldn’t shut my mouth and let you do what you please

Cheat the system and then rob the kids 

Wouldn’t be the puppet to your puppeteer 

Wouldn’t make myself small so you could feel big

I am not the Indian you had in mind 

Too pale and naive

Didn’t speak like you wanted or come from the rez

Didn’t know my homelands or fit into your impossible mold

Whose to blame? Canada of course- but nah- it’s my fault 

No relations like you imagined or enough hardship for you to understand 

Too skinny, too pretty, too white

Too much of myself for me to fit in 

I am not the Indian you had in mind 

Didn’t do just as you said, couldn’t be controlled 

I could see you and you felt threatened 

So you groomed a baby bunny 

Ready to follow you everywhere and do your dirtiest work 

She’ll grow into a hare with instinctual behavior and intergenerational replication of Your ways

she politely demands what you want and you feel entitled to that which is not yours 

You paint me as the coyote when I do not oblige

But a coyote is just a coyote existing as they do

to you, mooniyaw, the interrupter, coyote is a nuisance, a barrier

Coyote needs to disappear

I am not the Indian you had in mind 

Couldn’t be your quiet and polite token 

Couldn’t shut my mouth 

Couldn’t make myself small enough 

Then i couldn’t make myself small 

Couldn’t please the settlers or the kin alike 

I have never been the Indian you had in mind 

Reference:

I am not the Indian you had in mind: Thomas King. 2007