American Arithmatic by Natalie Diaz

American Arithmatic

Native Americans make up less than

one percent of the population of America.

0.8 percent of 100 percent.

O, mine efficient country.

I do not remember the days before America—

I do not remember the days when we were all here.

Police kill Native Americans more

than any other race. Race is a funny word.

Race implies someone will win,

implies I have as good a chance of winning as—

We all know who wins a race that isn’t a race.

Native Americans make up 1.9 percent of all

police killings, higher than any race,

and we exist as .8 percent of all Americans.

Sometimes race means run.

I’m not good at math—can you blame me?

I’ve had an American education.

We are Americans, and we are less than 1 percent

of Americans. We do a better job of dying

by police than we do existing.

When we are dying, who should we call?

The police? Or our senator?

At the National Museum of the American Indian,

68 percent of the collection is from the U.S.

I am doing my best to not become a museum

of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out.

I am begging: Let me be lonely but not invisible.

In an American city of one hundred people,

I am Native American—less than one, less than

whole—I am less than myself. Only a fraction

of a body, let’s say I am only a hand—

and when I slip it beneath the shirt of my lover,

I disappear completely.