Reclamation

Reclamation

I’ve been colonized

mind and body claimed

by Apple

Facebook

Instagram

Google

TikTok

Occupied

by Republicans

and Democrats

independents

and conservatives,

liberals,

progressives,

and even the Green Party

I’ve been enslaved

by Wells Fargo

Chase

Discover

the IRS

and the US Treasury

Assimilated

by Christianity

Capitalism

democracy

Robert’s Rules of Order

I’ve been subjugated

first by a pocket knife,

then by a hunting knife,

then by a shotgun,

then a rifle,

then a handgun

and I’m expecting

some assault rifles

Any day now

DR SCOTT SIMPSON

I’ve been settled

by Gilligan’s Island

The Brady Bunch

Get Smart

Hogan’s Heroes

and Sanford and Son

I’ve been conquered

by elementary school

middle school

high school

college

graduate school

they have all come

in their big ships

traversing distant oceans

trampling on my ground

into my veins

into my brain

cutting me up, annexing

my limbs

redrawing my borders

appropriating my sections

taxing the cells

taxing the tendons

taxing the veins and arteries

collected a toll on every breath

and every heartbeat

renamed a hundred times

I had no idea

who I was

And so I set out

to find myself

traveling the back roads

of my memory

the off-trail sections

of my consciousness

WHERE THE GROWTH BEGINS

looking for signs

and along the way

I found fresh raspberries

beside the trail

a chattering squirrel cracking

acorns on a branch

morning sun

warming my head

dew wetting my calves

from the long grass

swaying around me

I take three deep breaths

heart beating like a newborn

I have begun

the journey

of reclamation

DR SCOTT SIMPSON