WEBVTT

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Now, as some of you
know, I have written

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and said a lot about
this beloved aunt

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of mine, whom we called Lobo.

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And we did that because she
would come home at night.

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She never married.

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And there were
four of us at home.

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And she was like a
second grandmother.

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And she would come
to the door at night.

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And she would knock on the
door, and she would say,

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¿Dónde están mis lobitos?

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And so she became
Lobo, a name that

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became perfectly normal to us.

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I have said to
audiences, I thought

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it was a perfectly normal
name until the day I used it

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on a Juarez streetcar.

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And I lost sight of her, and I
started saying, "Lobo, Lobo."

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And all these people
looked furious

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at this disrespectful
little girl,

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who didn't know how
to talk to her aunt.

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But I have written
a lot about her.

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And what I have
finally concluded

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is that she is a
very wily character.

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Because just when I am
through that I have--

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feel like I have said everything
I have to say about her,

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she slips into another book.

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And indeed, the poem about
her is the first poem

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in the new book,
"The Loving Strip."

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"Not for men alone do
we remove our clothes,

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slowly unbutton
ourselves, and stare

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at flesh soft as the
underside of petals.

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The aunt who dressed in
black knew how to laugh,

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but her scowling tongue
ticked, [TONGUE CLICKING],,

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each time Rock Hudson pressed
his lips on Doris Day.

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We'd jab Lobo hard, embarrassed
at her muttered ¡válgame, Dios,

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válgame, Dios!

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But every Sunday,
movies, luscious dark.

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Afterwards, the depot,
trains chugging out,

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hand-in-hand walk to the
plaza, and Salvation Army time.

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She knew I loved
that thumping drum.

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Lobo's tongue ticked,
[TONGUE CLICKING],,

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at every man.

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But she could melt our frowns.

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Daily, she brought Archie
comics, Butterfingers.

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Late at night, she lifted
her hand above our bodies,

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la cruz más grande del
mundo, her blessing a sturdy,

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familiar quilt.

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Always in black, Lobo never wore
slacks, a lady of high collars,

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sleeves to her wrists.

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Of course, she didn't swim,
until the day our tears

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removed her clothes,
the pool sign,

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"No bathing without an adult."

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She read our sighs.

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Not for men alone do
we remove our clothes.

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She rented a black
bathing suit, two-piece.

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Though I was there, all
that flesh and her face

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will never match.

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And yet, I hear her laugh.

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We splash, climb her,
dive into ripples

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green, circle like frisky
seals around our rock."

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