eating the dog

you were cruel like that
bone bare
crunching my teeth
with yours
eyes wild like a coyote's
i never dared to match
the gaze
and when you inhaled
your cocaine
like a wolf
you knew the fear in me

the rest of you harboured
like fleas
you made me feal mangy
many times
i tried to bite your hand
and we both wondered
who got the rabies
it was not i
it would never be me

my tribe eats dogs
and in ceremonies
--little puppies
but that's nowhere near
as cruel
as the things you did to me

like how you cut out
my little pink tongue
dog catcher
dream snatcher
because it lapped
for something true
or the way
you blackened my eyes
because they glowed
like yours never could
all because
i was dumb as a bell
loud and clumsy
i never shut up
quick enough

you killed many of my kind
as a child
like a youth in asia
a place where they still
eat dogs
but i am like them
brown and not yet broken in
but like the asians
indians don't pretend
that we kill innocence
like you
best friend
slave master
--white man