OI (Oh-ee)

Daniel G. Snethen

An eclectic chowder

of academes stood

like judgmental whoremongers

at the edge of the world.

Intently they watched

as the wizened one

approached from the hinterland

pulling a travois behind.

The last Indigenous man

of the world lay upon it.

The grey-bearded loon said,

“This is OI and he needs brain surgery.

I can do the operation

I have performed it

many times successfully.”

“Of course someone else

might be able to operate,

but it is difficult and arduous.

We must decide who

shall pick up the scalpel.

I am willing and charge nothing.”

One of the academes,

a graduate

of Gold Nugget University

said, “I would like to try.”

Another, a big bag of wind

from the center of the continent

said, “Let her try,

he is only indigenous.”

The nun was uneasy,

but said nothing

in her complacency.

The great-great-great granddaughter

of George Armstrong Custer

said, “Yes let her operate,

but first, let us schedule

lunch; I’m hungry.”

“Then it is all settled,” said the Cardinal,

“She carves after lunch.”

The grey-bearded, wizened one

stripped of all his clothing.

Walked barefoot and backwards,

Heyoka-like toward whence he had come,

carefully stepping full-weight upon

serpent, cactus and scorpion.

It brought him much grief

and suffering and joy.

It helped him forget the

last Indigenous man on Earth.

To the whoremongers’ surprise,

OI died a lobotomized man.

Daniel G. Snethen is a poet residing in South Dakota. He enjoys reading and writing poems which are dark and bizarre. Snethen's favorite piece of literature is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Daniel makes his living by teaching indigenous students on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Snethen holds an M.S. degree in Zoology. Google his name if you are interested in reading more about him.