Uncharted Territory

Terre vierge, untapped
Primordial earth, unmapped
The torrid zone, the pioneer
The outer reaches, the frontier
Stake your claim, the explorer
A sensory experience, keep going past the border

The original peoples, appropriation
An untitled landscape, despoliation
Representative portrait, subversion
Features characteristic, expansion
And retrospectively, a civilizing mission
Behold the black gold, thank God for misdirection

Consolidation, treaties
Subjugation, minorities
Erasure, invisibility
Insatiable appetites, inequality
Bureaucracy, administered territories
Self-professed destination: uncharted territory

Uncharted Territory

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• Manifest Destiny by Jamiroquai
• I am the Conqueror by Dennis Brown
• The Border by Gregory Isaacs
• Airbound by George Clinton
• Border Song (Holy Moses) by Aretha Franklin
• Borderline by Horace Parlan
• Westbound Train by Dennis Brown
• The Border by Gregory Isaacs
• Expansions by Lonnie Liston Smith
  He was singing of expanding minds but this applies to the remit of territorial ambitions

Don't call it pilgrim's progress, for it's a trail of tears.

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

File under: culture, observation, blood, sin, greed, perception, violence, strategy, empire, colonialism, history, conqueror, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: May 2, 2021