Art by Kate Shaw

 

 

when the end came we did not save

everything

there was barely room for us

and so

what we deemed us

was saved

what was not us

was left behind

and thus we learned

who we really were

by the mountains of 

archives,

artifacts,

and ways of being,

that we left for the destruction

 

what was not we was

who were them,

and the gulf between,

was engulfed in a difference

between necessary

preservation

and required

oblivion

 

why had we worn for so many years

the cultures of another?

we had learned little

but for moments, at least,

in gift shops curated,

could pretend

to connect with a people

we did not really

want to know

 

they were not archives

they walked among us

 

and so our museums were shown

to just be unjust vaults 

of power

 

and when we left in our arks

we rewrote ourselves through

those limitations

 

 

 

 

Wes Bishop is the Editor in Chief of North Meridian Review and Assistant Editor at TERSE. Journal.