WEBVTT

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The next poem is
called "Shalako."

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The Shalako dances
are winter solstice

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ceremonial dances held in
the New Mexico Pueblo of Zuni

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around the tenth of
December each year.

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"Shalako."

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"Waiting to enter
houses, mudheads

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tilt adobe faces to the light.

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Birdlike gods clack their
beaks and stamp through snow

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to eat squaw bread
in a green kitchen.

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Being a god is to
know the roads back

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to one's ancestors, the
way to rise and pass,

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the path of blue shells broken
from abalone and purple-hearted

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snails.

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They crossed the river at dusk.

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The cold clanged like iron
as they entered the village

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with shuffling
steps and a ticket

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to Coronado's city of
gold torn by the mountain.

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People turned
spotlights on them.

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Pinned to the dark, they
cawed back to the mesas.

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Conquistadors dropped
to the mud at midnight.

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Wild horses that
dragged them there

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hide in the canyon
30 generations later.

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The pure ghosts smile and
sidle past one another.

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Year after year, the
tall beings shyly

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ford the river, hybrid
in the beginning

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as they are at the end."