there was always something
before colonialism intervened
in the social order somewhere.

there was always something
and then something else;
a both-and, a hybrid.

narratives of crisis
obscure the both-and and
reflect a nostalgia for
a something before something else;

narratives of crisis
are the something else
reaching back
to an impossible time of not-both.

narratives of colonialism
are something else.

colonialism
as a looking back
with the hybrid eyes,
gazing for the not-both
with the vision that brought about the crisis.

social order ordered by
the looking forward by looking back;
the looking back ordered by
the promise of living forward.