WEBVTT

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In "Portrait with
Tequila," which is set,

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let's say, in Dallas.

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And the-- this is,
again, a young woman.

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Everyone here would know,
but in many, many places,

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they don't know how
tequila is made.

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And so isn't it made by
pressing something out

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of cactus or something?

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That's what I thought,
anyway, when I wrote

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the last stanza of this poem.

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[LAUGHTER]

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"Pull down the shades.

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Your Black boyfriend is coming.

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He's not like you.

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He wants to live in the suburbs.

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You want to paint.

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Your hand does your dreaming
for you, the same hand,

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braceleted with scars, that
smooths down cats, sheets, men.

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Under it, your body is
turning into landscape-- look!

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Some metamorphosis of the moon.

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The ancients who watch
you from their porches--

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you and your earrings,
in your bare feet,

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in that long boy's
undershirt you wear,

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because your breasts are
small, they're all asleep now,

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the insects, the wind.

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It's late, but
then he's married,

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and this is still Texas.

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The night is a giant cactus.

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Potent, aromatic, the
liquors you press from it."