Land Back
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Land Back — Andrew Adridge
Where is my mother?
She too came to the spot to see
Vast lands where her children would roam,
where the space between the land and the water would be her home
Where is my father?
He too saw the mouth of the river
A lake long ago that had a name not attached to white skin
A place hallowed that housed indigenous kin
Where is my brother?
He too had a spirit, too adventurous for the oppressor
A hope that no wrong could or would ever be done
Till a man came to a nearby spot, arms raised holding a gun
Where is my daughter?
She too laid the foundation of this land
Stolen, buried beneath the institution of her demise
To take the land they then claim to have spotted first as their prize
Where is my son?
He wandered too far from what he knew as his nation
Green with hope and life’s affirmation
His soul dismantled to remove the savage
His body tossed away like old baggage
From a nearby spot
The lake with no English name was first seen by greedy eyes
By a white man
With a malicious spirit and European ties
Who laid the seeds of colonialism and oppression
While standing atop the now resting skeletons
Of thousands of years of mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons
And all who passed this way, whose songs will never be sung
