'Look at all the history'

"The white woman across the aisle from me says 'Look, 

look at all the history, that house

on the hill there is over two hundred years old, '

as she points out the window past me

"into what she has been taught. I have learned

little more about American history during my few days

back East than what I expected and far less

of what we should all know of the tribal stories

"whose architecture is 15,000 years older

than the corners of the house that sits

museumed on the hill. 'Walden Pond, '

the woman on the train asks, 'Did you see Walden Pond? '

"and I don't have a cruel enough heart to break

her own by telling her there are five Walden Ponds

on my little reservation out West

and at least a hundred more surrounding Spokane, ''

From Sherman Alexie's poem "On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City.''