[Long Time Ago] after class discussion

After discussing this poem in class, I realized that I had misinterpreted it.  I thought they were a group of medicine men having a friendly competition, and I didn't understand that they were evil.  I thought it was a child speaker that called them witches just because he hadn't seen them before.  Now that I know more about the poem, I think it is sick.  Why would these people boil babies for competition?  For the same reason people hate America.  For power and fame.  They wanted to be the best and impress the others.  It's all about ego and pride.  Once I learned that the good medicine man was the one telling the story, it made more sense. These witches wanted the Indians to believe that the white man is the evil one, when really they were worse.  I like what was mentioned in class, about this having a biblical theme. 

After discussing this poem in class, I realized that I had misinterpreted it.  I thought they were a group of medicine men having a friendly competition, and I didn't understand that they were evil.  I thought it was a child speaker that called them witches just because he hadn't seen them before.  Now that I know more about the poem, I think it is sick.  Why would these people boil babies for competition?  For the same reason people hate America.  For power and fame.  Once I learned that the good medicine man was the one telling the story, it made more sense. These witches wanted the Indians to believe that the white man is the evil one, when really they were worse.  I like what was mentioned in class, about this having a biblical theme. The witch telling the story had no gender, race, and was both evil and mysterious.  Just like God has a mysterious form, so does the devil.  Maybe they were trying to get that point across subliminally.  I definitely felt something supernatural was present in the poem after we discussed it in class.  I thought it was interesting how a story that had not came true yet was more scary to the Native Americans than the boiling of babies.  But I guess an evil you know is often less scary that an unknown evil.  I liked how the poem was set up to look like a totem pole, and with the most important part at the bottom, so I had to go back and re-read the end of the witch's story.  He said the white men are already coming, and there is nothing they can do now to stop it.  It is already coming.  I'm glad I went back and re-read this after we discussed it, because I feel better now that things are clear.

Until next time,

Keri Jo