The Native, The Slave and The Conqueror (Original)
Inside of me spins a coin with three sides:
The Native, The Slave and the Conqueror.
The sordid mixture of warring races,
built over lust, greed, destruction and fear.
Deposing Cacique
The native ones of the mother isle
Children of the earth, stars and moon
At war with the Cannibals
But at peace with themselves
Until the Gods came.
In their ships they held an Empire
They eyed the land and all it made,
The fertile fields we tended,
Our strange wood instruments
Strange altars and Gods.
The Native then was simply no more
Saved, yet somehow now just a slave
The subject of a kingdom
In civilization,
Most high salvation.
El Grito de Lares
The native slaves were bonded humans
to those from the dark continent
Brothers in civility
And brothers in bondage
The Gentleman’s way.
Native and slave and conqueror mixed
Through enslaved Taino women,
Whose blood once chose our leaders.
The future kin will know;
The blood remembers.
The cry that tore across the whole sky
Screamed and pled for independence,
For history lost from the land,
For nature’s imbalance,
For loss of the men.
On Shuffling Kings
The island was called Boriken then
When Empires sought possession
And even named it's wild lands
According to their whims
As they often do.
For Native and Slave and Conqueror
There were only the crowns to blame
Every one else was the same
Children of Empire
Sins unforgiven.
If the island had been further south
Or east or west or to the north
The Natives could have kept peace,
With their strange instruments
And still stranger Gods.
Inside of my veins the blood is mixed thrice:
The Native, The Slave and the Conqueror.
Inevitably mixed on this planet
Built on lust and greed, and given to fear.
Thank you for spending time here.
Other Works -
The Cete Series:
Of Gods and Ends 1
Of Gods and Ends 2
Of Gods and Ends 3
Of Gods and Empire I
in Collaboration:
Psychogen Ep 1
Psychogen Ep 2
Psychogen Ep 3 (Forthcoming)
Steem Survivors Ep. 2
Steem Survivors Ep. 3
Steem Survivors Ep. 4
Powerful and poetic. Loved this, great work.
Thank you very much :)
I know these feels.
I've got a mix of Amerindian (Kalinago/Arawak) African, European and East Indian, and they all converged in one place in the Caribbean. Slaves, Natives, Conquerors, and Servants.
We're probably related haha the tribes of that region (the non-cannibal ones anyway) often intermingled to secure peaceful coexistence with each other. They were pretty peaceful and chill before the invasion
Possibly very, very distant. The Taino took a different route into the Caribbean islands, the Kalinago and Arawak came up through what is now Venezuela and Guyana. The Kalinago were called Caribs by the conquerors and were known, apparently, for being warlike and cannibals, but who knows for sure what's true.
Special gratitude to you for the poem. It's wonderful!
Thank you for the compliment, I'm very happy you enjoyed it