Everybody Wants The Indians To Leave

Everybody wants
the Indians to leave

When you go, the sporting set says,
leave us your names
so we can go back to naming
our teams after you (such an honor)

When you go, the hippies say,
leave us the feathers sweat lodges and symbolism
so we can go back to using them
without your nagging

When you go, the liberals say,
leave us the wisdom of how to clean
a dirty environment — oh,
and thanks for the proper dose of guilt 

When you go, the conservatives say,
just go go on
go on and get gone
Leave the casinos and minerals and go

When you go, says the ghost of John Wayne,
take me with you
Everyone’s forgotten both of us 
I’ll be good this time

When you go, says the ghost of Jim Morrison,
don’t fucking leave me here on the highway
just because I made the story up
Do you know what I did for you people?

When you go, say the ghosts of the Pilgrims,
please take all the cardboard crepe paper turkeys
and cutouts of those ridiculous hats and feathers
I think now that we understand mythmaking

that you should have let us starve 

Everybody wants 
the Indians to leave

but not before they learn 
to call themselves “Native-Americans”
so everybody can believe again
in the healing dismissive power
of the hyphen