Summary

Chapter 130 begins with a poem in which Alexie writes: “..terrible mothers are commonplace. Just like terrible fathers. So let’s mourn For the children who never knew childhood. Our grief is justified. Our anger is good.” Throughout the rest of this short poem, Alexie expresses the difficulty for children raised by terrible parents to break the cycle of brokenness and grow into adults that are not terrible. He has no conclusion but rather blames himself for the mess of a life he has created.

Later in this section, Alexie remembers the severity of his family’s poverty growing up on the reservation. He reminisces on when he fought snowball battles using old socks for gloves while wearing a thin cotton jacket" (353). Despite the freezing temperatures, he remained outside playing, because he was a kid and needed to play. In December 1974 or 1975 he walked...