POISON IVY [ but make it Indigenous ]

a poem by Ali Nahdee

Her people first protested peacefully
When the bulldozers came to their
Sacred grounds and ripped up
Their ancient graves to make room
For a pipeline 

And she bunkered down and 
Remained peaceful
When the military came in
And sicced dogs on her children
While firehoses tore the skin
From the bones of her elders

But when the SWAT teams 
Beat her Warriors with their batons
And their shields, and when their 
Pepper spray stole the sight and breath
Of her Matriarchs, and arrests were made
And prisoners were violently taken
Did Ivy finally realize 
That nobody was coming To save them.

The King of Atlantis slipped back
Beneath the waves 
The Man of Steel ascended to the sky
The Amazon Princess turned her fair cheek
And looked the other way
And the Dark Knight disappeared 
Like a shadow as black as the bag
That they forced over her head 

But when the sack was removed
And the light hit her eyes
Did she realize her prison was
Not a cell in Blackgate Penitentiary 
But a man camp set up near
The construction site, filled with
Native women and girls who went
Missing weeks ago

Panic crept in like a poison
And then burst out of her
Like a house with a gas leak
And Ivy went screaming and thrashing,
And biting and kicking and refused
To go quietly into that terrible night
When the Heroes looked away
Because Native Women don’t deserve
The luxury of Superheroes 
Coming to their rescue

Her ferocity was only stifled with a bullet
A bullet that should have killed her.
And if not the bullet, then the fall
From when they threw her down
Into the desecrated earth
The disturbed tombs of her ancestors
And if not the fall, then laying there
Among the bones of her grandparents
Soaked in the blood of her sisters
And aunties and cousins and nieces
THAT should have killed her

BUT IT DID NOT

Because if nobody is coming to save her
She will save herself
Because this story will not end
The way this world wants
A Native woman’s story to end:
In tears, in blood, in violence, in the gutter

NOT TODAY

The bones of her ancestors beneath her
Stabilizing her resolve 
Building her foundation 
The blood of her women
Swathing her like a babe 
In a cradleboard
A makeshift womb of the Matriarchs of Old
And the Fallen Daughters of Today 

THE BLOOD REMEMBERS

THE EARTH REMEMBERS

THE GHOSTS OF THE PAST REMEMBER 

AND THEY TELL YOU TO LIVE

MIGHTY WOMAN

THEY TELL YOU TO RISE

YOU DON’T GET TO DIE TONIGHT

BUT DEATH WILL BE HAD

Your homelands have blessed you
Your skin has transformed
Brown into Jade
Black hair into flames
Eyes of polished onyx 
Now the vibrant yellow of
Venomous beasts who grew tired
Of giving warnings to those
Who deserve death and decay

CLIMB FROM THIS MASS GRAVE

THESE GROUNDS ARE NOT YET YOUR TOMB

CLIMB UP TO YOUR FREEDOM

TO LIFE, TO REVENGE

The Earth breaks from under the camp
Plants entangle these killers,
These flies in a Black Widow’s web
Plant your seeds in their dirty mouths
And watch your blossoms burst 
From their ears and their eyes
Making flower pots of their skulls
Life born from death
Life born from continued genocide

Soldiers and workers breathe in the spores
Of your blooming flowers
Spores that fester and rot away at their skin and bones
A rash becomes a plague
That soon prepares a meal
For the worms 

Roots and vines grow strong
In the gears and wheels
Of their machines and armored vehicles
That defile the Earth the way
They tried to defile you
A condemned home will always
Return to nature and these
Hollow shells of destruction 
Will give way to growth and renewal 

Ivy left home and went to the front lines
With a red handprint over her mouth
And her fist in the air
Chanting “LAND BACK” and
“PROTECT THE SACRED”
And now Ivy returns with one message
To those who dare step foot on these lands:

“THIS LAND IS OUR LAND

AND YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.”

When a Native Woman is deemed a villain
The colonizers would have her die like one
So wear your Crown of Feathers and Thorns
And watch these colonizers crumble

So long as Gotham City 
Stands upon Stolen Land
And heroes do nothing
In the face of Colonial Violence
Will Ivy do what needs to be done
In order to tear it all down.

“THIS LAND IS OUR LAND

AND YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.”