EUROPEANS

it seemed so primeval this new soil 
upon which they first tread 
these woodlands
virgin
formidable
the bay and the rivers replete with sturgeon and 
a myriad of other fish species they had never heretofore 
encountered

europeans landing in america for the first time 
products of a philosophy and life style 
just as alien as that of the natives they first 
encountered and as alien as the land they were destined 
to inhabit

the native and his day of life, his reason for being 
were to remain alien to the european 
and his descendents as dell as future europeans to arrive 
over the coming centuries 
they were the ones who brought change to the landscape 
first touched upon with uncertainty and trepidation
and the force of progress unknown heretofore to the native

europeans
the real aliens to this continent so vast 
so as to be unknown to those standing at its fringe 
on the eastern coast
but the european learned fast once established 
so as to be permanent

he learned quickly not only to subdue nature but to 
nearly exterminate the indigenous population/ 
a formidable task for a few centuries of endeavor, 
but was this progress?

progress.
the creation of a brand new culture in time to be
divorced from the mother countries from which they came/ 
the transformation of a new continent into a new 
institution and state of being and reason for being

but civilized man in confronting his primal roots 
imposed his own set of values and expanded them relentlessly 
forfeiting a valuable chance to learn of his origins 
that subsequently became the tasks of the archeologists 
of today...