Nobody's Story

My blood is mixed

My mother was ungumpai picani, my father was habsoluca

This mixture was not respected;

As a small boy I was often left to myself

So I spent many months stalking the Elk people,

To prove i would soon become a good hunter

One day finally, my Elk relatives took pity on me,

And a young Elk gave his life to me

With only my knife, I took his life

As I was preparing to cut the meat white men came upon me,

They were English soldiers

I cut one with my knife but they hit me on the head, with a rifle

All went black; my spirit seemed to leave me

I was then taken east, in a cage

I was taken to Toronto, then Philadelphia,

And then to New York; and each time I arrived in another city, s

Omehow the white man had moved all thier people there ahead of me

Each new city contained the same white people as the last,

And I could not understand how a whole city of people could be moved so quickly

Eventually, I was taken on a ship across the great sea,

Over to England, and I was paraded before them like a captured animal, an exhibit

So I mimicked them, imitating their ways,

Hoping they might lose interest in this young savage,

But their interest only grew

I was copying them so they placed me into the white mans school

It was there that I discovered, in a book,

The words that William Blake had written

They were powerful words and they spoke to me

So I made careful plans and eventually I escaped

Once again I crossed the great ocean

I saw many sad things as I made my way back to the lands of my people

Once they realized who I was, the stories of my adventures angered them

They called me a liar

Xebachae-he who talks loud saying nothing

Ridiculed by my own people, and I was left to wander the earth alone

I am Nobody.