My Poet Is Simon J. Ortiz.

An Acoma Pueblo Native American Writer

                

        Simon J. Ortiz was an important writer of his time and still is to date, writing books under the 
genres of short fiction and nonfiction, he also wrote poems about how humans interact with the environment
and each other. Some of his poems include 
Going for the Rain(1976),A Good Journey(1977), From Sand Creek(1982),
Woven Stone(1992), After and Before the Lightning (1994), and Out There Somewhere (2002).

        Ortiz was born on May 27, 1941 in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he grew up speaking the Acoma Tongue. According 
to Poetry Foundation, Simon states that “This early language from birth to six years of age in theAcoma family 
and community was the basis and source for all [he] would do later;” although this tongue and culture are important 
to him, they also got him in trouble at school because his teacher did not appreciate their being expressed in class.

        In his later life after attending Fort Lewis College, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Iowa
where he earned an MFA, he served in the army, being discriminated against and working in a uranium mine. According to Poets.org,
Ortiz left the military in the early 1970’s, he then started writing and teaching at multiple colleges, winning a Pushcart 
prize in 1982 from his book 
From Sand Creek.

        Some influences other than his heritage are Walt Whitman and the writers of the Beat Movement. Poetry foundation 
states that Ortiz also shares writing styles with people such as Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, and Gary Snyder. 
Currently, Ortiz is teaching at Arizona State University, the same university he founded the Indigenous Speakers Series at.

                

Busted Boy

He couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old, 
likely even fifteen. Skinny black teenager, loose sweater.
When I got on Bus #6 at Prince and 1st Avenue,
he got on too and took a seat across from me.
A kid I didn’t notice too much because two older guys,
street pros reeking with wine, started talking to me.
They were going to California, get their welfare checks,
then come back to Arizona in time for food stamps.

When the bus pulled into Ronstadt Transit Center,
the kid was the last to get off the bus right behind me.
I started to cross the street to wait for Bus #8
when two burly men, one in a neat leather jacket
and the other in a sweat shirt, both cool yet stern,
smoothly grabbed the kid and backed him against
a streetlight pole and quickly cuffed him to the pole. 

Plastic handcuffs. Practiced manner. Efficiently done. 
Along with another Indian, I watch what’s happening.
Nobody seems to notice or they don’t really want to see.
Everything is quiet and normal, nothing’s disturbed.
The other Indian and I exchange glances, nod, turn away.
Busted boy. Busted Indians. Busted lives. Busted again.

I look around for the street guys going to California.
But they’re already gone, headed for the railroad tracks. 
I’m new in Tucson but I’m not a stranger to this scene.
Waiting for the bus, I don’t look around for plainclothes.
I know they’re there, in this America, waiting. There; here.
Waiting for busted boys, busted Indians, busted lives.
                

Busted Boy Analysis

       This poem is talking about a young native boy who was arrested just for being on the street while two other natives 
watch from the side. The concept that this is displaying the authoritative discrimination against the minorities in cities. 
The first stanza is describing a bus and the tattered people on it; this description makes it seem as if they are in a part 
of a city that is most populated with these kinds of people, people who are minorities and more lowlife people.
       As the poem transitions into the second and third stanzas, the issue of discrimination against minorities becomes 
prominent when “two burly men” grab this kid and handcuff him to a streetlight pole. The poet describes this as a 
practiced manner that is efficiently done, implying that this is a quite normal occurrence, furthering this implication 
that this type of event is very common, the poet also describes how no one seems to notice what is 
going on, except for he and one other Indian.
       Leaving the third stanza and entering the fourth, we see how these two Indians respond to this situation and all 
they do is nod and walk away as if staying any longer would put them at risk of becoming “busted Indians” like the 
boy against the light. Finally, in the fourth stanza, the poet explains that this scene is in fact quite common and that 
he, as well as other Indians or minorities must always be looking for these “plainclothes” who are waiting in america 
for “busted boys, busted Indians, busted lives.” this line occurs twice in the poem and describes the title 
and meaning of the poem very well.

      
      

      
Busted Boy Stylistic Impression
      

      
      

      

      

        
Citations
        

        
“Simon J. Ortiz.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, 22 Apr. 2014, 
        www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/simon-j-ortiz.
        
“Simon J. Ortiz.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 
        www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/simon-j-ortiz.