WEBVTT

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And this is one from--

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that will be in the
journal forthcoming.

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And it started with just, you
know, when you watch clouds,

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and at first you start to
see the dragons, or the ship,

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or all the beautiful things.

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But I've been back home, living
there now for a full year,

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and so the sky is so big there.

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And so when you watch
them, being home,

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once you sit out there
for a little bit,

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you start to see
different things.

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You start to get a little
bit deeper cloud watching.

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"Betsy Ross needled hot stars
to Mr Washington's bedspread--

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they weren't hers to give.

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So, when the cavalry
came, we ate their horses.

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Then, unfortunately, our bellies
were filled with bullet holes.

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Pack the suitcases with
white cans of corned beef--

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when we leave, our
hunger will go with us,

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following behind, a dog
with ribs like a harp.

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Blue gourds glow and rattle
like a two-man band--

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Hotchkiss on backup vocals
and Gatling on drums.

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The rhythm is set by our
boys dancing the warpath--

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the meth three-step.

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Grandmothers dance
their legs off--

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who now will teach us to stand?

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We carry dimming lamps
like god cages-- they

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help us to see that it is dark.

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In the dark our hands pretend
to pray but really make love.

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Soon we'll give birth to fists--

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they'll open up black
eyes and split grins--

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we'll all cry out.

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History has chapped
lips, unkissable lips--

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he gave me a coral necklace that
shines bright as a chokehold.

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He gives and gives--

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census names given to Mojave--

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George and Martha Washington,
Abraham Lincoln, Robin Hood,

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Rip Van Winkle.

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Loot bag ghosts float fatly
in dark museum corners--

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I see my grandfather's
flutes and rabbit

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sticks in their guts.

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About the beautiful dresses
emptied of breasts--

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they were nothing compared
to the emptied bodies.

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Splintering cradle boards
sing bone lullabies--

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they hush the mention of
half-breed babies buried

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or left on riverbanks.

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When you ask about
officers who chased

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our screaming women into the
arrowweeds, they only hum.

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A tongue will wrestle its
mouth to death and lose--

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language is a cemetery.

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Tribal dentists light lab
coat pyres in memoriam

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of lost molars--

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our cavities are
larger than HUD houses.

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Some Indians' wisdom teeth
never stopped growing back in--

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we were made to bite back--

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until we learn to bite first."

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