Postcolonial Love Poem

Diaz uses the image of war to comment upon the extreme trauma she experiences in her daily life. She references historical wars as “ended” (Line 3) but emphasizes the ongoing culture war, saying, “depending on which war you mean” (Lines 4). By connecting these wars together, she emphasizes the ongoing violence of assimilation and cultural erasure.

Yet in the face of these wars, the speaker tries to “wage love” (Line 8) instead. But the battlefield extends to her relationship. Each erotic encounter is “another campaign” (Line 9). Her lover’s white skin is a “cannon flash” (Line 10) that triggers the speaker’s generational trauma. Despite no suggestion of physical violence between the couple, their bodies are “like wounds— / the war never ended and somehow begins again” (Lines 40-41). The power imbalance between an Indigenous woman and a white woman re-enacts the historical colonial warfare, wounding their bodies.

Diaz uses rocks to mark the resiliency of her people and herself. The lesson that “bloodstones can cure a snakebite” (Line 1) reflects how her people have cared for themselves in the face of colonialism. Her hopes and dreams for a better life “sleep like geodes beneath hot feldspar sand” (Line 22). This image emphasizes both her own personal resiliency and her people’s.