I want to read three more short poems.
One time, I did a reading, and Laura Tovey said,
you made everything sound so sacred.
And then you make everything sound so bad.
And she said, don't you have any love poems?
So ever since then, I've been fooling around,
trying to come up with some love poems.
So I would like to read two of them.
First one is more of a taboo kind.
It's a love between people of the same clan.
And what happens, they always say, hey, [NAVAJO],,
she is related to you by clan, they go.
So this one's called [NAVAJO] "Boy Moth" is
what's it's called.
"This one guy used to be a good friend of mine.
One time, he went with us on a forest fighter call.
And a big ponderosa tree fell towards us burning,
he tripped right beneath it.
Nothing, not even sand, helped.
He burned.
When I see a fire like this, I usually remember him.
I'm going out with this girl, he used to say.
I guess, one time, her husband caught him.
And boy, his eyes were really swollen.
He had to go see her again.
Why, I don't know.
When we get home with my check, we're heading out.
He was eager to elope with her.
But he turned to ashes and she returned to the water.
I guess some people just can't handle love.
Daniel was of the red house clan, so his mother says.
Laura was also of the red house clan, so I found out.
And I remember my mother saying, stay away from your relatives.
Leave them alone.
When you do, you will jump into the fire saying, sand, sand,
and, still, you will burn.
What did you say your clan was?
[NAVAJO]
I already told you.
Well, I already forgot.
Too bad.
I'm not telling you again."
See, that's why I'm still single.
I always think of this sand, sand thing.
And if you're Navajo everybody is related to you.