WEBVTT

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All right, enough
with the vowel poems.

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So there are these--

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there's a long narrative
section to the first section

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of this book, and it's kind of
like Billy the Kid meets Medea.

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So it's about this kid Jim--

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Our Jim-- who's half
Native American.

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And you'll get a--

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I'll read one section that
gives you a very clear idea

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of the story behind him.

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"Ballad of Infanticide."

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"Near starved, we find
a fort of teetotallers

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who begrudge us their succor.

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While we eat up all
their salt pork,

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Our Jim sings for them
in a strange high voice

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of an Injun killing
Ranger who hitches up

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with his Comanche guide.

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She bears him a
strapping son and is

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ramped with another,
when the Ranger hives off

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with a fair-haired
sheriff's daughter.

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He then banishes his
squaw and his sons

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like they're prairie beeves
But she won't go quietly--

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she poisons his new wife
with a malarial dress,

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and that ain't the
worst of her sins,

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that tar-eyed witch
strangles her own newborn,

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and the other son flees--

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The ladies cry-- enough
of this devil song.

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Then it done occurs to us,
looking at his dusky skin--

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Our Jim's a two-bit half-breed."

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