Diane Burns, Chemehuevi and Anishinabe Poet
(1957-2006)
“Sure You Can Ask Me A Personal Question”
How do you do?
No, I’m not Chinese
No, I’m not Spanish.
No, I’m not American Indi--uh, Native American
No, not from India.
No, we’re not extinct.
No, not Navajo
No, not Sioux.
Yes, Indian.
Oh, so you’ve had an Indian friend?
That close.
Oh, so you’ve had an Indian lover?
That tight.
Oh, so you’ve had an Indian servant?
That much.
Oh, so that’s where you got those high cheekbones.
Your great grandmother, eh?
Hair down to there?
Let me guess--Cherokee?
Oh, an Indian Princess.
No, I didn’t make it rain tonight.
No I don’t know where you can get Navajo rugs real cheap.
No, I don’t know where you can get peyote.
No, I didn’t make this--I bought it at Bloomingdale’s.
Yes, some of us drink too much.
Some of us can’t drink enuf.
This ain’t no stoic look.
This is my face.
The title of Diane Burns's poem “Sure You Can Ask Me A Personal Question” (Aloud, 187) is laden in satirical humor. Burns’s rhetorical and declarative style creates an increasingly tense dialogue, uncovering naive and curious offenders that cross her path. By using plain language, repetition, and short lines, she effectively delivers “a political punch” at every line in response to the question “How do you do?” and other implied statements and questions. “The gem” of this poem is that it exposes the numerous, tired stereotypes of Native Americans held by many Americans today. Undoubtedly Burns (like her name) is fire, in her words to destroy the misconceptions of what it means to be Native American.
Toward the end of the poem that follows, “Alphabet City Serenade,” Burns makes us laugh again with this hilarious, rhetorical rhyme-riff on American Hollywood and capitalism (Aloud, 189). She writes,
Do you know, do you know that
I hate Chevrolet
I hate Doris Day
I hate Norman Bates
And I’m at war with the United States
Diane Burns’s defiance rings true in her poetry as she consistently voices her honest refusal to accept American culture and all that is attached to it--greed, superficiality, Euro-centric standards of beauty, assimilation and oppression. Her use of repetition and short lines with no line breaks, again effectively increases the velocity and intensity of the poem.
Diane Burns is a trailblazer who for many of us will forever, be remembered.
-Mica Valdez
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