WEBVTT

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And my last one is also from
Alberto Ríos from his book,

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The Smallest Muscle
in the Human Body.

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And he calls this, "In The
Strong Hold of her Thin Arms."

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"My grandmother's hair was long.

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Not long like nights filled with
unsettling dreams which end.

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Her hair was longer, like
January growing to September.

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So much was the care she gave
each turn and fiber and knot

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as she brushed.

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To look at her hair,
was to look hair by hair

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as she did separately
at each strand so

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that to see it took two people
side by side looking for days.

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In her hair, she
held the seasons--

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the winters of its end,
the autumn of its middle.

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On her head, the
heat of the sun.

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And the heat of
holding her head up

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made a summer of her struggle.

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People standing next to her
after walking the desert,

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could feel the warmth
coming out of her hair.

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Animals loved her.

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They could hide
forever in her hair

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as she held them,
could make their words

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to her stay in the secluded
world of her embrace.

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And underneath, on the under
side, the human light rain

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of water and sweat,
the strong wide roots

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of this great hair river with
its tide and its 100 years.

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Each one on a given length
of hair, a thought or a dream

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or worry so that her
words reached out

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like so many thin arms.

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And listening to her when she's
saying and when she hummed,

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was to be held."

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Thank you.

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