WEBVTT

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I remember camping one night--

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or several nights,
in the Sierritas,

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out here west of Tucson, and
seeing a very strange cloud

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formation.

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It was strange in
shape and color.

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It was a peculiar pink
color, and it also

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looked like the head of a
man drifting on the horizon,

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with his head back and his
jaw tilted up toward the sky.

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Well, this boiled in my head for
a couple of years, as I recall.

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And then I was reading
Chekhov, and something

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coagulated in my head.

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And the poem is titled,
"On a Line by Chekhov."

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The intentions are revealed,
and the designs needle

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like thistles
bunching in the blood.

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Shall we choke in
the skirts of angels?

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Once, abandoning ourselves to
a land where the houses had

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fallen, the cattle ran
wild through the thickets,

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bowels of virgins
waving from their horns.

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The ground wind and dust
filled our britches.

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On the 40th day, we saw a cloud.

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Warriors head thrown
back to the heavens,

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watched his pink slit jaw
drift off down the range.

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That night, in the rain,
scratched our knees,

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waited for messages.

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