Stuck Her Neck Out, Too

If you subtract

Columbus

from the mythic origins

you still have

Pocahontas,

but even she

is subject

to revisionism;

her own people

now suggest

their stories

tell something very different

about that time

she saved the life

of John Smith.

They say she didn't save him at all,

that it was just a ritual

that dumb ol' John Smith

just didn't bother

to understand,

another in a long series

of sleights 

to a culture,

to a whole continent

of cultures

white people

could never bother

to respect.

This of course 

would have nothing to do

with "King Philip"

or the wars

fought between

these reconciled peoples

a generation or so

later.

Is it really

such an onerous story

to have

about a girl

saving the life

of a boy

she maybe kind of liked

despite their differences?

I don't think so.

People tend

to like those sorts of things,

brings people

together.

Which I suppose

is the point.