WEBVTT

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As I've told several
people, I keep

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coming back down to
the Southwest working

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on several books, but
always, I guess, in a way

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looking for a new poem.

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Some of these are
set in New Mexico,

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especially in Southern New
Mexico, some of the more

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isolated areas of the state.

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This is called "The Carved
Hands at San Miguel."

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"I stood before the carved
hands at San Miguel.

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They could not touch
the child walking home,

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so they touched me.

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The carved fingers
were cold and hard,

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and they jabbed me in the heart.

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When I stood back,
the sculpted arms

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embraced the color of
the day and let me go.

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When I stepped
outside, I was blind.

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When I tried to go
back in, I was wrong.

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The stone hands kept me there,
promising my sight back as

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soon as I knew how to use
the power of this darkness,

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the need to weigh the light on
the other side against things

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I will never see, the Rio
Grande changing course,

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a hawk throwing the sun
into my mother's womb,

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and the fugitive returning
with gifts for the family

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he abandoned in his prime.

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I stood before the carved
hands at San Miguel.

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They could not touch
me, so I held them

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until I could reach beyond
their wrist and the arm,

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the form of rock that became
that white body left behind."

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