Eastman

by Amanda Iacampo

 

“Boy,” she said, “Pick a Christian name,”
I stared blankly back at her,
And my heart died the moment she put the blades of the scissor to my hair

I winced as I heard the sickening -kerplunk-
of the thick braid, as it fell from the nape of my neck and onto the floor

“Boy, Pick a Christian name,”
I purged my spirit from myself and into the sky,
Praying that some small part of me would fly back to the land of my brothers

These light-skins did not want us to hunt on white lands,
They did not want us to hunt great buffalo

These school chairs, as they called them, were not easy
I longed for the soft tufts of grass on the warm home lands

“Ohiyesa,” my father said to me, “You must stay”
and “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” came not too long after that

“For the last time, pick a Christian name!”
I opened the said great book before me,
and pointed to the first white word I saw,
Sending Ohiyesa back to the land of his brothers and sisters

I answered the teacher,
And I became “Charles”

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Amanda Iacampo is a 20 year old, full-time student at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. She is a published poet and the Editor-In-Chief of the universitys literary magazine, The Willow. Amanda is also the President of Salve Regina’s English Guild and continues to work diligently as a pre-service, English Literature teacher.