10 hours ago
Guam
Their Empire's western border is the eastern
edge of the sea named after us: those islands
we once considered sisters, yet they never
fought for their freedom when we fought for ours.
Perhaps they believed that when our latest common
masters allowed us to leave, they would become
more than a stopping point for treasure-hunting
galleons turned into steamships on their westward
courses, that their lonely little boulders
floating like lost coconuts near the center
of the Pacific would instantly be considered
destinations all their own, exchanging
the beggarly commonwealth for the one more brutal.
Their Empire's western border is the eastern
edge of the sea named after us: those islands
we once considered sisters, yet they never
fought for their freedom when we fought for ours.
Perhaps they believed that when our latest common
masters allowed us to leave, they would become
more than a stopping point for treasure-hunting
galleons turned into steamships on their westward
courses, that their lonely little boulders
floating like lost coconuts near the center
of the Pacific would instantly be considered
destinations all their own, exchanging
the beggarly commonwealth for the one more brutal.