Columbus The Conqueror Poem by Kevin Patrick

Columbus The Conqueror



A gold eyed schemer, ravenous for glory bound
Steadfastly, held swayed to the latitude round
And Craven plump visions with fervid ambition
Selected his crew of goons on Castiles gilt commission
On three tall Caravels festooned with regal daring
Stretched strapping sails with equal fashioned Bearing
Crossing wild foreign waves over the blue Plan
Lashing azure oceans for his rapacious gain
the Proud Genoan gazed on the Atlantic like a hound
seeding future horrors where the innocent would drown

For Asia was his prize but unbeknownst was his throne
A paradise of emerald the sanguine Taino had sewn
They lived inside a dream and knew a world of peace
To be rich was contentment, and all greed was obscene
And Wealth was the fruit that nature bequeathed
Where men lived unarmed without cruel beasts of priests
As their Church was a sky and their sermons were sunlight
And no one feared Gods wraths or his paternal pride
Until his faithful servant landed on that golden shore
Founding a legacy where the death machine roars


Balmy sands were the stage of this sea peddler's craft
He met the kind Taino, who he beguiled by his tact
Swayed naked to his words and his European charms
unconscious of the envy to which he meant them harm
he traded them his smile and hand of open friendship
treated them like brothers from which the world had slipped
Yet in time he showed his face and those his men concealed
As they slowly whipped the world into something to be Kneeled
Maiming earth with churches, and haciendas at great cost
Until nothing left was sacred and another paradise was lost


And the people he called noble, he pitilessly chained
Beat them to submission like wild dogs to be trained
his men erected crosses while they pillaged, and they raped
Razed villages for trophies and put the heathens to the stake
And with a belly full of faith and a stomach full of greed
Made them slaves to mine for gems for gold was his true creed
Thousands upon thousands died by guns and germs and steel
Yet proud Columbus stood by with fanatic's grace and Zeal
Herald of future empires and prophet of genocide
Five hundred years of carnage in the name of one mans pride


Explorer in fame of name but a swindler by trade
His statues cruel shadow is where all graves are made
And the voice of all those swept by histories tide
The pioneer of tyrants for 500 hundred years' time
Columbus the explorer,
Columbus the conqueror

POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
The poem is inspired in part by Neil Youngs Cortez the killer, but also a reflection of the history of Columbus himself. History has painted a portrait which has showing only the good, the truth is the man was the beginning of 500 years of European expansionism that still has ramifications to this day.
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