Saturday 5 August 2017

Beyond the Story


Expected to 
Embrace a Maple
By virtue of geography
And happenstance

Quite truthfully
One of my
Best childhood friends
Was an Oak tree

Oh Canada..
Why?
If someone else had taken me home
I'd be singing another song

I was born there 
So what?
You can't presume
I support "Canadian" values..

What is that anyway?
If if doesn't align
With what I believe
Then I don't care what flag it's wrapped in

Many would deny my Irish Ancestry
I get it, I wasn't steeped in the history
Did I ask to be sired
And then exiled, an ocean and continent away?

What does anyone know 
About what I experienced
Of my ancestry
While leagues away

Canada approx. 150 yrs old
Depending on the measure
Now comprised of the descendants of colonialists
And those they stole the land from

These settler spawn
Have the audacity 
To bleat 
If you come to this country live as we live

Many "Canadian" born descendants
Have lost the richness 
Of their own heritage
So intent are they at assuming the "New World" dictums 


Nothing is distinctly Canadian
The whole country comprised
Of people that have been coerced 
To homogenize their heritage

The original inhabitants
Were dealt a
Cultural, Spiritual and Identity
Holocaust

Something so much deeper
Than nationalism and ideology
Is lost 
When gone, is your story, of belonging

I mean no disrespect
To anyone's love
Of nation or culture
I am a stand for a deeper consciousness

Beyond the story
Of divisive
Ideologies and cultural narrative
That defy connection and unity

I will not judge, discriminate or kill anyone
 Based on nationalism
I would die
Rather than see, an aligned soul's voice, being repressed



R. O'Neill (Aug.05, 2017)

















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