An Identity Crisis
I certainly know who I am . . .
I can get away with being politically incorrect.
I am the ambassador to First Nations’ poetic expressions
& as Kinsella pompously put it straight
“I have the license to do so.”
what a magical way to escape tyranny!
just like Trudeau & Chrétien hiding beneath cowboy hats
nevertheless & back to the point,
call me cowboy
call me First Nations
call me aboriginal
call me native
call me chug
call me skin
if you must,
but never call me Indian.
I call myself that!
& if you feel guilty when I say so,
this is not about postcolonial rhetoric
it is about an identity crisis
Copyright Credit: Garry Gottfriedson, “An Identity Crisis” from Whiskey Bullets. Copyright © 2006 by Garry Gottfriedson. Reprinted by permission of Ronsdale Press.
Source: Whiskey Bullets (Ronsdale Press, 2006)