By ANGELA MAE BUENAFE-ZE
The Truth is exposed to you in that subtle roundabout way:
Masked in some kind of self-righteous humility
Condolences for your pity
“Kawawa me” mentalities
Restricted their potentialities
to
8-5pm in airconditioned offices that
filed the correct paperwork to hang
tarpaulin signage that promises
Protection of Rights.
They know how to recite them laws real singsong like,
like we were some ignoramous side-kick Disney animals,
and They were the only ones
who could make us human again for our happily ever after.
More human than ourselves, if we can
sing that song exactly like them.
In the same language that said
we would always
be Animals.
So now you’re gonna tell me
exactly how much to put in that envelope,
that Legal amount for me to
learn from and develop my own people?
Yo,
you can’t even go to the bathroom
where WE go to the bathroom.
Handout 1) For per diems and transportation,
2) Need at least 3 staff to help with mobilization
Rationalization: Sworn by oath to take
minutes of the proceedings,
but under your breath complain
about the accommodations.
So it’s all just and fair that students gotta pay YOU to conduct transparent consultations(?!)
Yo, watch out. Cos hell yahhh NOW y’all are in the
hoodest of all hoods!
No electricity, no runnin’ water,
carryin’ school chairs on their backs,
and scrapin’ the Jungle and Rivers for yer food.
Liquor and cigarettes and diesel and chainsaws
are multi-purpose commodities
and the kids draw pictures of
bulldozers and timber trucks using
charcoal on the side of their make-shift houses.
We REAL gangsta now!
So how you gonna promise me that you
are guarding me?
What is it you DO with all these stories?
Tellin’ me it’ll be easier if I abide to the laws and
Pay Up
just like THEM,
then y’all Dayo gonna come here to the ancestors’ land and
“ask” for Free, Prior and Informed Consent?!
Free for who? Fees for what?
Prior to what, was written
by those who don’t even know
Our names.
Informed us how?
Consent through you
Not what we said,
But what you want us to do.
Say yes, make it easy
To place a thumbmark
on that piece of paper,
we cannot read Your meanings
if you don’t live through Ours.
Could you even live through
Our
Truth
exposed to you in that stark and intense
In your face, through your bones kind of way.
