Creative Response to Cross by Kumalau Tawali

I chose to respond to this poem as I believe that it is about losing your identity because of outside forces (in this case Christianity). This poem carries a lot of resentment and I can relate to this. I am not religious but I can identify with this poem in the way that I resent outside forces changing things like Tawali resents Christianity for taking away his cultural traditions etc.

The Oak Tree

I used to feel at home in the

Arms of an oak tree, swaying

In the gentle spring air. The leaves

Would dust my cheek with a kiss and the curves

Of the branches fit perfectly into

My back.

I watched as builders sawed down my

Beloved branches, hacked away my

Supportive trunk and finally ripped

My roots from the earth.

They didn’t even give me one day of

Mourning before they began

Construction.

 My tree was replaced by a shiny

 Apartment building with concrete

 Floors and cheap aluminium windows.

Years later I walked by that very same

Building and saw that it had been covered

In graffiti and had a sign saying

“Condemned. “