Gold & bread

You rip our earth of our bread and our water, 

our gold, 

our independence,

and when we seek in your lands 

what you have taken from ours,

you shame us, tell us to return to our place.

call us thieves and deceivers.

When we seek reparations,

you say how crazy we are to cling to bygones.

When we seek progress, 

you call the hands that rebuilt the ruins iconoclasts.

You brought forth a drought in my land- 

one of spirit and heritage.

You carved the earth around me for extraction,

and yet- 

the shock on your faces

when men, raised by the brutality of your manufactured thirst

simply wish to be given a glass.

The audacity!