One of the things that came up in class was--
I felt challenged by and I don't know
whether it was meant that way.
It didn't make any difference because we were just looking
for things to talk about anyway-- but was how--
do you ever feel more intense about things
than a lot of those poems seem?
And I thought of a poem called "In The Night Desert,"
which I think I've surely read here before.
Most of these things I haven't.
The Apache word for love stings then numbs the tongue.
Uttered once clear, said, never that word again.
Cousin you call or sister and one more word
that spins in the dust, a flake chipped like obsidian.
The girl who hears this flake and follows you into the dark
turns at a touch, the night desert forever behind her back.