And then I want to close with this one, which
is bringing us back to home.
And just a couple of notes, there's
reference to some of the villages
that you pass by as you go from here into Sells,
for instance and then beyond Sells as well.
And also, there is--
O'odham people believe that wherever
you stand in this region, if you can
see what we call Waw Giwulik and you
all might know it as Baboquivari Peak.
If you can see it, then you're then you're in O'odham land.
That's your home.
And I like that notion and O'odham truly believe that--
and I truly believe that.
And a couple of years ago, I was up at Ventana Canyon,
just in the parking lot, and I looked out
and I saw Waw Giwulik.
And I said Ventana Canyon, this resort is O'odham homeland.
[LAUGHTER]
So anyways, this is called "Blacktop,"
the highway, that's what people refer to this highway.
"Blacktop."
"The blacktop carries me past Three Points,
the security of homelands passes by me.
It carries me past San Pedro where
weavers sit under the watto, their voices
drift into the tangle of desert where all language goes.
The blacktop carries me into the tohono,
into the heat making me delirious.
San Lucy sounds like a country western song.
The blacktop carries me in all directions.
Sometimes I'm traveling with a lone eagle, other times
I roam with worse scavengers.
The blood or the heat of the blacktop calls me.
It calls me as if it has always known my name.
Anonymity is my desire, walking instead in sandy washes
and rocky hills unseen, leaving the debris of my life
under a mesquite tree.
I rush toward an imaginary new life.
The blacktop carries me in all directions.
It knows my name.
I never told it my name, but it calls me.
It wants to carry me in all directions.
It whispers, you will always see Waw Giwulik in your rearview
mirror."
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]