Vincent Buckley - The Naming of Peoples

[mythomanic]

The Naming of Peoples

In the superb reductions of print
it seems all right to call them
by names they never heard, or used:
The Halberd People, the Blue Spear People.
If people were still named after their weapons,
we would be called
The Projectile People, or Those Who Kill From Afar,
or Spitting Poison People, or Anthrax Minders.
On the great lowlands rugged with grass
we squat beside snout and muzzle,
we are growing moustaches
and learning laws of trajectory. Our films
are of painted, unrazed small towns.
On the jetfighter's broad jaw
we have painted: Homing Pigeon.

-- Vincent Buckley