Red Indian Man's Blues Poem by Denis Martindale

When I was young, so long ago,
The white man swarmed the land.
His government at first was slow,
Yet oh what things it planned...
Then came the trains like speeding snakes
That slithered here and there,
Like iron veins and each one takes
My boiling blood elsewhere...

The armies came and stayed in forts,
Like spears forced in the ground
And telegrams send their reports
Without a single sound...
And schools were built for future schemes
White children would explore,
Enough to squash our future dreams
In times of peace and war...

And so it was, their streets were paved
Across the hills and plains,
Across the valleys, few were saved
Despite our aches and pains...
They forced us from our homes as well,
To leave our ghosts behind...
And then they added to our Hell
To change the Indian mind...

That's when our children went to school,
To learn the white man's ways,
To pass exams like that was cool
And something sweet to praise...
The white man took our women, too...
And loved them one-by-one...
And left us reeling, feeling blue
Beneath the white man's sun...


Denis Martindale, copyright, October 2011.