WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.770 align:middle line:90%


00:00:08.770 --> 00:00:11.140 align:middle line:84%
The only thing I really
need to say about this one

00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.870 align:middle line:84%
is this is one of those
innumerable bribes

00:00:13.870 --> 00:00:17.890 align:middle line:84%
that we make out in the West
and there's a reference here

00:00:17.890 --> 00:00:19.810 align:middle line:90%
to the Navajo practice.

00:00:19.810 --> 00:00:23.710 align:middle line:84%
When someone in the traditional
way, when someone dies

00:00:23.710 --> 00:00:27.490 align:middle line:90%
in a home, the house is burned.

00:00:27.490 --> 00:00:29.530 align:middle line:84%
The body is taken
out through a hole

00:00:29.530 --> 00:00:32.740 align:middle line:84%
in the wall which is created
just for that purpose.

00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:35.110 align:middle line:84%
And the whole idea
is so that the dead

00:00:35.110 --> 00:00:37.640 align:middle line:90%
don't return to trouble us.

00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:40.540 align:middle line:90%
So there's a reference to that.

00:00:40.540 --> 00:00:43.360 align:middle line:90%
"Unidentified flowers."

00:00:43.360 --> 00:00:45.460 align:middle line:84%
"All morning, you
and I took turns

00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:50.560 align:middle line:84%
driving through the reservation
past trading posts and Navajo

00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:51.700 align:middle line:90%
towns.

00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:55.900 align:middle line:84%
The smoke rising from tin
roofs and makeshift chimneys.

00:00:55.900 --> 00:00:58.570 align:middle line:90%
Past two burnt down hogans.

00:00:58.570 --> 00:01:03.580 align:middle line:84%
A door driven through each wall
before the houses were torched.

00:01:03.580 --> 00:01:10.030 align:middle line:84%
So whoever had died there would
be confused, unable to return.

00:01:10.030 --> 00:01:11.950 align:middle line:90%
You pointed out the flowers.

00:01:11.950 --> 00:01:15.400 align:middle line:84%
Weed thick, blooming
along the highway.

00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:19.120 align:middle line:84%
Their bloom like the
haze of another fire.

00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:23.170 align:middle line:84%
Dusting the mesas with
the cobalt electricity

00:01:23.170 --> 00:01:28.090 align:middle line:84%
of their petals whatever they
were of whichever family.

00:01:28.090 --> 00:01:31.120 align:middle line:84%
By the time we
finished everything,

00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:35.080 align:middle line:84%
we traced our way
home, they had vanished

00:01:35.080 --> 00:01:38.500 align:middle line:84%
replaced in the cycle
of desert flowers

00:01:38.500 --> 00:01:43.270 align:middle line:84%
by the orange and red
flames of another species.

00:01:43.270 --> 00:01:46.480 align:middle line:84%
We looked for any
sign of their petals.

00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:50.380 align:middle line:84%
The shining five hours
of their lives having

00:01:50.380 --> 00:01:53.290 align:middle line:90%
forgotten if we ever knew.

00:01:53.290 --> 00:01:59.440 align:middle line:84%
How to identify the perennial
stems, leaves, roots.

00:01:59.440 --> 00:02:03.010 align:middle line:84%
I should have known
when I plucked several,

00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:06.010 align:middle line:84%
thinking to preserve
them in my book

00:02:06.010 --> 00:02:10.330 align:middle line:84%
and they shivered to
pieces in my hands,

00:02:10.330 --> 00:02:17.110 align:middle line:84%
that they were moving past us as
quickly as we drove past them.

00:02:17.110 --> 00:02:20.830 align:middle line:84%
Pass the bunched sheep,
the pot-bellied dogs,

00:02:20.830 --> 00:02:25.000 align:middle line:84%
the houses burning with
the fires of the living

00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:26.500 align:middle line:90%
and the dead.

00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:31.000 align:middle line:84%
Driving, remembering what
has been dismembered.

00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:37.980 align:middle line:84%
Everything woven together,
stitched together only in us."

00:02:37.980 --> 00:02:39.000 align:middle line:90%