By Dawn Quigley
Langston, we too, sing Turtle Island.
We are the 574 Nations.
They want to hide us
In the past tense,
Yet we love,
And dream,
And are still here.
Today, now,
We are at the oval table
As our women lead.
Nobody can ever
Say to us,
“Natives lived, Natives ate, drank, led.”
We are present tense.
Because,
They will know what we’ve always known
And be humbled—
We, too, sing Turtle Island.
Source: Poetry (March 2021)
Poet Bio
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