What formerly got celebrated as adventitious age of exploration...

1492 unleashed, jump/

kick started, and downloaded

a bittorrent götterdämmerung
spelling genocide of indigenous peoples

occupying Turtle Island,

now surviving tribes

just a shell of their former grandeur.

At present Columbus day

linkedin with high dudgeon

courtesy scattered remnants

of once proud nations

occupying contiguous United States

plus calling Alaska and Hawaii

their happy hunting grounds,

enshrine actual or mythologized

spectacular pièce de résistance

instances when counting coup.

I recollect needing to know
scores of years ago
when a student attending grade schools
within Lower Providence District

as an important bit of information

contributing to (white washed) history

of western civilization

(and never forgot)
recalling the names Nina, Pinta,
and Santa Maria associated
with heroic measures undertaken

by Cristóbal Colón,
(but also been referred to,

by himself and others, as Christoual,

Christovam, Christofferus de Colombo,

and even Xpoual de Colón)
five hundred and thirty years ago,
who purportedly "discovered"
the Americas, when in
fact native occupants of the land

already dwelled upon
the then island paradises.

He/him and subsequent swashbuckling
gung-ho high spirited men

set sail across expanse of ocean(s)

exhibiting eager intent to claim

untrammeled storied quintessentially

opulently magnificent kingdoms
intoxicating greedy Europeans.

Blatant exploitation inexorably nudged
courtesy trickery vis a vis hook and crook
to grab good & plenty treats
forcibly wrested by violence
sabotaging the delicate webbed wide world

constituting millenniums of heavenly bliss,
where marauders wantonly ransacked

indeed lacking absolute zero selflessness
forcing diverse autochthonous nations

to acquiesce and surrender

ancestral grounds to aggressive, coercive

and offensive Europeans hell bent

to populate occupied territory

commandeering, humiliating, manhandling,

poisoning, subdividing, triangulating

every square inch

encompassing fruitful grand home

of rightful heirs to stolen

near boundless tracts

eventually hashtagging uncharted

pristine green acres

spanning from sea to shining sea

becoming commercial real estate

falsely claiming a haven

housing home of the free

land of the brave.