They Don't Love You Like I Love You

Maps are a symbol for America, but not the America of the American-dream narrative. Maps in the poem symbolize an America which the land of subjugation, oppression, and the death of millions of Native Americans. Maps are “ghosts,” a metaphor which invokes the ghosts of the millions of people dead by settler colonialism. They are “layered,” as in that they conceal layers of history. The names in maps hide truths, such as when a Native American land is given a white name, or when a contemporary city is given a Native American name with no Native American input. Thus, maps symbolize death, lies, and arbitrary boundaries in the poem, both of which the poet associates with whiteness. Further, the term “maps” is used in the literal sense as well, which is as a diagram of an area showing its geographical and manmade (towns, cities, roads) features. However, the poem interrogates the concept that a map can be a tool for violent appropriation. Because the boundaries of manmade features can be redrawn, a map can assign one community’s land to another, displace whole communities, make people exile in lands they considered their own.