WEBVTT

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[SPEAKING IN MOJAVE]

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It was a very good night.

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I'm very happy to be here.

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I thank Allison.

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I mean, this book
is a great thing.

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But she does so
many great things

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I think that are
beyond even the book.

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She's been a mentor
to a lot of us,

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and she's helped pave the way
and open a lot of doors for us.

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So I thank her very much.

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Thank you to the Poetry
Center for having us here.

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It's great to see
such a big crowd.

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And in the line
of language work,

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Susan Penfield's here from UA
and she's been an awesome help

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to my tribe, and my people, so
it's good to be in good company

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here.

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I'm going to read two
poems to you this evening.

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A lot of what I write about
is experiences that I've had.

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So one of the main issues that I
struggle with and wrestle with,

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and it comes through my
writing is meth, meth use,

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meth addiction.

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It's hit, I think most
areas hard, but especially,

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our reservations and in
my family, especially.

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So this poem is called
"Black magic brother"

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"My brother's shadow
flutters from his shoulders,

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a magician's cape.

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My personal charlatan
glittering in wooful dust

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and loaded with
gimmicks and gaffs.

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A train of dirty cabooses,
of once beautiful girls,

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follows my magus man
like a chewed tail

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helping him perform his tricks.

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He calls them his beloveds,
his Sim Sala bimbos,

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shoves them into pipes packed
hot hard as cannons and wham

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bam alakazam, whirls
them to smoke.

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Sometimes he vanishes
their teeth then

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points his broken wand
up into the starry sky,

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says, voila, there they are.

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And the girls giggle, revealing
neon gums and purple throats.

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My brother, my mago.

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The consummate professional,
he is dependable,

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performs daily, nightly, in the
living room, a forever matinee,

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and always late shaman show.

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Come one, come all,
behold the spectacle

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of the Prince of
prestidigitators.

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Pulling wild animals from
a hole in his crotch.

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You thought I'd say
hat, but you don't

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know my black magic brother.

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And those animals love him
like the first animals loved

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God when he gave them names.

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My brother, our
perpetual encore.

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He riddles my father
with red silk scarves

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before sawing him in
half with a steak knife.

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Now we have two fathers, one
who weeps any time he hears

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the word .

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Presto The other who drags his
feet down the hall at night.

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Neither has the stomach
for steak anymore.

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My mother, too,
is gone somewhere

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in one of the pockets of
my brother's bluest tuxedo.

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The audience is we.

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We have the stubs to prove
it, and we have been here

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for years in Velvet
chairs the color

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of wounds waiting for something
to fall, maybe the curtain,

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maybe the crucifix on the wall,
or maybe the pretty white doves

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my brother made disappear.

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Now we see them, now we don't.

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Will fall from his
sleeves like angels,

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right before our very eyes."

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