THEY DON’T LIKE INDIANS
they stopped delivering our paper
again
my dad marched into their office
and demanded to know
whether it was because
they didn’t like Jews
they didn’t like Indians
or because he failed some punk kid
delivery-boy in his Grade 9 Art class
“If you don’t start delivering
our effing paper” my dad said,
maybe not in these words, but
in not-so-many words,
“I’m going to pull our advertising,
out of your god-damned paper”
finger pointed in the air.
We’re now getting our paper again
but I can only wonder,
for how long?
Missing and Murdered
There is a highway, in Canada
called the “Highway of Tears”,
so many Women
have Gone Missing
or been Murdered,
along the 800 kilometer stretch of road
they call it “The
Highway Of Tears”,
582 Aboriginal Women, have
Gone Missing, or been Murdered
since 1980*
I can’t help wondering
How things would be different, if
582 White Women, went Missing
or were Murdered
Would it make a difference?
I can’t help wondering
Why the lives, of my Mom, Grandmother,
Sisters, Aunts, Daugh
ters, Nieces –
are Less important?
So Many Women,
have gone Missing
or been murdered
It Is Not Safe
to be a Woman, or an Aboriginal Woman
In THIS Country,
Because their lives, have less value.
_____________________________________
*Sisters in Spirit
THE Rybovski’s
5 kids: Dave, Steve, Irene, Mary, & Ziggy
–they all survived the war–
their parents owned a dancing studio in Poland
they were the “Arthur Murray” of Lodz
(“who?” I ask)
Irene was a dancer too,
I saw her dance once, at some social function.
She could really dance.
Dave, is the one with the numbers Tattooed on his arm
Steve, drove a cab in New York,
Said he would never have children
too afraid he’d go insane some day:
When he was a child
the Nazi’s used to revive him
after they killed him
kill
revive
kill
revive
kill
revive
kill
I wonder, what they were looking for?
Some secrets of the after-life?
I wonder what he saw when he died?
–the Nazi’s were meticulous in their records–
Is it awful that I want to know what they found?
I wonder if the records of his torture still exist
hidden away somewhere in some file.
only one or two
out of the whole batch of children they did this to
survived
he was one of the lucky ones.
lucky guy
_____________________________________________________________
Nathan Adler is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe)/Jewish writer and artist. His painting “Flying Bird” is pictured at the top of this page. Nathan was the first place winner of the 2010 Aboriginal Writing Challenge, he has had his writing published in Redwire magazine, Canada’s History magazine, and as a part of the Odemin Giizis Festival. He is currently working as a glass artist, and is a member of Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation. (He has a twin brother named Howard who also has a submission in this issue of Indigenous Shtetl).
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