{"id":1582,"date":"2013-02-22T05:45:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T05:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=1582"},"modified":"2025-02-24T01:44:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T01:44:50","slug":"eastman-by-amanda-little-rose-iacampo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/eastman-by-amanda-little-rose-iacampo\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastman by Amanda Iacampo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Eastman<\/h1>\n

Eastman <\/span><\/h1>\n

by Amanda Iacampo<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Boy,” she said, “Pick a Christian name,”
\nI stared blankly back at her,
\nAnd my heart died the moment she put the blades of the scissor to my hair<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I winced as I heard the sickening -kerplunk-
\nof the thick braid, as it fell from the nape of my neck and onto the floor<\/p>\n

“Boy, Pick a Christian name,”
\nI purged my spirit from myself and into the sky,
\nPraying that some small part of me would fly back to the land of my brothers<\/p>\n

These light-skins did not want us to hunt on white lands,
\nThey did not want us to hunt great buffalo<\/p>\n

These\u00a0<\/span>school chairs<\/span><\/span>, as they called them, were not easy
\nI longed for the soft tufts of grass on the warm home lands<\/span><\/p>\n

“Ohiyesa,” my father said to me, “You must stay”
\nand “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” came not too long after that<\/p>\n

“For the last time, pick a Christian name!”
\nI opened the said great book before me,
\nand pointed to the first white word I saw,<\/span>
\nSending Ohiyesa back to the land of his brothers and sisters<\/span><\/p>\n

I answered the teacher,
\nAnd I became “Charles”<\/span><\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemporary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t