Poetry About Imperialism

A red line crosses the map without consulting the river or village. Empire calls extraction order and resistance disorder. Ships leave heavy with minerals, timber, labor, and names. Schools teach the conqueror's language as the price of advancement. The occupied learn to speak in public and remember in private. Railways point from the interior toward someone else's port.

Ships leave heavy with minerals, timber, labor, and names. Rebellion grows wherever obedience has been mistaken for consent. Flags change, yet borders and unequal markets remain. History must count both the palace archive and the oral wound. No empire is abstract to the people whose land financed it. Repair begins by naming what wealth was built to forget.

A red line crosses the map without consulting the river or village. The occupied learn to speak in public and remember in private. Railways point from the interior toward someone else's port. History must count both the palace archive and the oral wound. The old map fades, but its red lines still organize the road. Repair begins by naming what wealth was built to forget.