"Napi And The Eighth Day"

This was written by my dad.
Napi is one name that some
Native Americans may use to
identify a diety.

“Napi And The Eighth Day”

Having rested since the seventh day
he got up to see what had happened
“I wonder how it worked out?”  he said to no one in particular, he sat
down with his newspaper:  
First he read about war
“War?”  he said scratching his head
villages burned in order to save them
people killed in order to aid them
“War?”  he said again, he looked in his “Book of Creations”----nothing---
“where did war come from?”
then he read about racism
“Whazzat?”  he said
blacks called jigs
cops called pigs
Asians called gooks
Italians called crooks
Mexicans called spicks
Irish called micks
kids called freaks
women called weak

“Christ”  he said looking into his book again; “they’re supposed to be equal!”  “What the hell?”
then he read about poverty
swollen bellies, shoeless feet,
ragtag clothing, nothing to eat,
trash on the table, lice on the head,
rats on the stoop, eating the bed

“What?”  “Am I dreaming?”   He pinched himself
then he read about pollution
brown rivers, black skies, dirty lakes,
watering eyes,
“BLUE”  He shouted; “they’re supposed to be blue!  It’s right here
on the second page.”

He read on:  an energy crisis
taps out of water, cars out of gas,
stoves without heat, lights that don’t last,
“What the hell is this?”  “Is this some kind of a joke?”  He got up and walked around.

He read on:  a consumer crisis
steak is sky high, sixteen a pound,
others eat our wheat,
we’re out of ground round,

“And what the hell,” he said, “is a soybean?”

He read on:  politics and governments,
an administration mistreating the taxpayers,
may cause impeachment if they can slog through the layers,
“Now I know I read this somewhere”, he said, turning to the pages of man,
“There!”  “Man must heed his opposite”,
law and order, right and wrong, government and politics,

He read the rest of the news:
crackpots, harlots, snipers and hypers,
democracy, bureaucracy, and hypocrisy,
rapists, escapists, leftists, rightists,
and fascists,
opportunists, communists, and atheists,
terrorists and cheaters,
arsonists and child beaters,
three cheers for the red, white, and blue,
hard hat and rifle, knock flat and stifle,
My Country, Right or Wrong!

His hands shook, his face turned red,
“This is all bullshit,”
he looked at the weather report,
Rain tonight,
“Well, that’s one thing they got right,”
“Forty days and forty nights!”

© John M. Hyde
    01-01-79