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We are so honored that
you are here, they said.
We know that this is
your homeland, they said.
The admission price
is five dollars, they said.
Here is your button
for the event, they said.
It means so much to us that
you are here, they said.
We want to write
an apology letter, they said.
Tell us what to say.
Copyright © 2018 by Gwen Westerman. Originally published in New Poets of Native Nations (Graywolf Press, 2018). Used with the permission of the poet.
Inspired by our 2021–22 cohort, sixteen regional poet laureate fellows from our 2022–23 cohort composed another exquisite corpse examining the role of a laureate in the community. Each laureate fellow received only what the poet before them had written and had to write a stanza responding to that. The starting questions were: What is a poet laureate? What does one do?
This is what is left of my land:
we are
dream carriers
child bearers
those burdens borne
with hope
and intensity
under the gravity
of responsibility
history and
love
not guilt
love
and hope
for those who
will dream
and share
these burdens born
we do not give up
willingly
but attract and repel
balance and share
stronger
in that bond of
love