guns, germs, and steel

where smallpox raged a continent lay bare
a ghastly simulation of "pristine"
for colonists to plant our claimstakes here
it's awkward to explore what that must mean 
whole civilizations beneath our feet
whose heirs would claim what we now call our own
 what title-search can ever be complete
that takes as gift what was--at best--a loan
no Tacitus or Caesar wrote the book
of what we'd now decry as genocides
to sleep at night, we've got to over-look
the grave that our suburban ranch house hides
the only simple claims are Eskimos'
who didn't kill a soul to claim their snow