True Story Poem by Laura Kiernan

The classes I attended today
Were French, Victorian Literature, and math
But no one learned anything
Because no one really learns at college

Outside on the streets
White Christians held signs condemning many:
Revilers, homosexuals, adulterers, thieves, etc.
I would have just walked by

But a seventeen-year-old boy stopped me
And handed me a pamphlet
And I told him I didn't want one
But he insisted

I told him I am an Indian
And though I find religion beautiful
I find it a little hard
To find God in a white world

He told me that the Indians were a blessed people
He said we will live in the Kingdom of Heaven
If we renounce our sins
And accept Jesus Christ into our hearts

I asked what sins he meant
Besides the usual ones
(Drinking, smoking, being born a woman, you know the drill)
What should I renounce?

He told me to renounce our wars
To renounce our drinking
To renounce our gambling
To renounce our abuse

I threw his pamphlet on the ground
And took a step toward him
My newly-bald head uncovered
When my jacket's hood fell to my shoulders

'You have taken our land
You have taken our languages
You have taken everything you wanted
And you think you are giving me a gift?

I don't want your gift
I don't want your sympathy
I don't want your help
And I don't want your God.'

He looked at me with sadness
And told me he wished I weren't going to hell
And I told him thanks for his concern
But that I wasn't his concern