What You Call Your Territory I Call My Home
What is another word for colony?
The internet tells me my country
has a dependency. Without being
a possession of the United States,
how could we have survived? Our
veins
needing the high of first
world blood money. Maybe
being
a territory is not so bad, like
some grown-ups say. Maybe
we deserve dominion.
Guttural without the
protectorate. In
settlement communities, you
know, in Dorado or Condado
(or anywhere—
you can find beautiful
outposts fenced and feudal
holding
clearing
for a new mandate, an offshoot
swarm: this new land will
become
our satellite state. Our
domain. The antecedent for
speckless regions around
the world. Shiny with
virtual gold. In this patch
of tributary, we can reverse
the subject state dilemma
of the locals and build
a district the crypto gods
would be proud of. This
vessel will make a statement
in the millions. How
could the natives not
be into the idea?
Blows my mind.
What if
my country’s people brought the hurricane with us wherever we went. Every time a gringo would do something shitty, we could gift them a slice of this storm. One where the eye gives you time to pray for redemption, look around and think My life was pretty good up to this. And we would know that God was never looking out for us. We had to shove our ocean mouths up the colonizer’s throat to realize we were indeed stray mutts. After the upheaval exclaim We catapulted to survive. These skies are not for you to dream, to build on. This is our sky. We breathe in peace, finally, here.