POEM: Exploration

Sometimes I am the New World
Begging for exploration;
Rich with spices
Drunk with gold;
Hoping to be colonized,
Settled and civilized.

I have a culture all my own,
With my own language
And my own customs.
I don’t need your flag planted in my soil –
Nor do I need to be claimed for another;
I want no foreign gods
Or Faiths taught to my children
In other languages;
I do not need pox riddled blankets
Or my own wealth exported
As the pretext of some sort of allegiance.


I do not need to provide you with cheap labor,
To make your TV sets or Nikes.
I do not need to sell you cheap beef
To satisfy your McValues -
I am indigenous unto myself

You must have the courage
To find me and name me.


Inside of me is the unknown and the unknowable:
These great strengths and my greatest fears.

M C Biegner
5/2005