Indigenous
Flagged - Words in Exile: Entry 4
This word was flagged by the U.S. government for erasure in 2025. Click Here. Or not.
fingers stained blue–indigenous– blueberry skin split under nails. sweetness, thumb-dark. the basket frayed at the rim. dawn arrives with its fist already closed.
indigenous woman under fluorescent checkout rice, salt, strike-anywhere matches. her card goes through. it always does.
lichen crust, reindeer moss frozen. indigenous ground, boot prints fill with meltwater. someone gutted a rabbit here. blood already black on the snow.
one indigenous song snagged in barbed wire– rust blooming orange. kora strings–griots teaching sand what won't be forgotten.
There’s something devastating in how ordinary everything feels — checkout lines, snow, baskets — and yet the violence hums underneath it all. The restraint makes it cut deeper.
So beautiful!