Robbie Gamble
As a White Man in America
I try to remember these two things every day:
- That this beautiful land
I get to walk upon each day,
all got commandeered
by my ancestors, violently,
from the people who were here
before them. - That this wonderful economy
I enjoy, humming with material comfort
and strewn with shiny things,
all got jumpstarted
by over two centuries
of free labor provided
by the people that my ancestors
indentured and brought over here
violently, against their will.
Two simple facts
so hard to register in my heart
as a white man in America.
Robbie Gamble lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is currently completing an MFA in poetry at Lesley University. When he is not preoccupied with image and line breaks, he works as a nurse practitioner caring for homeless people in Boston.
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