I Am

I am All Seeing and Wise Beyond My Years

I wonder What It Would Be Like In A Different Time

I hear People's Thoughts

I see What Watches Me

I want To Be Respected

I am All Seeing and Wise Beyond My Years

I pretend To Be From The Tiaga Days

I feel Things Are Changing

I touch Oni -- Oni embraces me

I worry about Ama

I cry About the Troubles for Sisa

I am All Seeing and Wise Beyond My Years

I understand I Cannot Be Safe, Even Though It is After The Storm

I believe There is Truth, I Just Don't Know it, Yet

I try To Stay Protected

I hope For... Who Knows What To Hope For Now?

I AM all seeing AND wise beyond my years.

"Ama's house has termites and a path worn into the floor from the stove to the window where she looks outs. The path goes out the door to the porch and down the two wide steps. A stranger could read her life from this floor. They'd find fish scales in the boards if they looked close enough, and road dust and pieces of leaves and stems" (26).

"I can still smell the cat, the sharp odor, the damp fur, the smell of cut flesh and blood, all still with me like its become my skin, and I am steeped in it. All around me are the houses, with people watching television and eating their snacks, and I am in the trees" (94).

[As I was reading, I was reminded of the description of Ama's house while Omishto was describing herself. It struck me that Omishto was being so closely described as the house.... The I AM poem should be read from the duel point of view of the house and Omishto.]