Principal's Principle of Individual

The Principal
has all the principle.
Her principles guide
all other principles.

She has pride individual,
and she supports others, individual,
but this makes everyone individual.

If she believed in the community,
our work could be communal.
We could trust in this community.

And so our students work individual.
They ask questions only individual
and interest is purely individual.

But this individual
interest is also among teachers.
It is also the principle of
our leader, Principal.

And some students do succeed
individual from community.
But most students cannot
and because of their lonely individual
they become the other community.

So, when the Principal asks
of that community.
Demands of that community.
Wonders at the community.
It is a wonder she does not remember
her principle of individual.

Boys Always Want to Solve the Problem

you found the problem instantly
but that won't solve it instantly.
it's the future, you said
and I know,
not just next year
it's next week, tomorrow
it's dinner tonight.
and suddenly, I don't even know
that the sun is shining
over you and I
and soft voices accompany
guitars, harmonicas, fiddles
simple major chords.
I don't even know how to know
this happiness.
You know that is my secret.
It is all I have ever wished for.

Donkey Kong Helps With Scholarships

this future is a joke
when you only allow me
this joke.
this pride in me is your
pride in you and, worse, you've taken
my pride in me.

what kind of future do you
even see?
i know not one for me
but what do you even see
out there for you?

i will tell you
i will shock you
with what you've done because
this is what you do.

you have raped
you have stolen
you have stripped bare
exploited and left.
is this your counsel,
mighty guidance counselor?

at least before
this abuse was my abuse
but now, you've abused me,
exposing my abuse.

you took me in.
i had worked hard
and you promised something better
and i should have known then
it really wasn't for me.

but i saw that future.
you showed it to me.
and you made me shit on it.
you made me make that money dirty.
and it was no longer
about my hard work
it was no longer any A
or knowledge of ojibwe.

this was poor kid money.
this money was my abuse.
and no longer was i
stronger than most.
and no longer did i
have a future.

this money was never meant
for my higher education.
because that committee only
wanted
someone stronger than most.
someone with a future.

Untitled

Sunday night alone
though everyone is home.
it doesn't go anywhere
this conversation at dinner
it hardly goes anywhere
these tired thoughts, hopes.

We dreamt of freedom.
but we never saw it here.
we dreamt of a certain childhood.
That was this neighborhood,
this house.
that was why we painted
in our dining room.
that was the reason for furniture.

And perhaps this house is too big.
This furniture too plenty
this neighborhood too close
to the big city.
because we spend Sunday night,
it seems every night,
when everyone is home.