WEBVTT

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So this is a new
anthology that came out

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from Davis, California.

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Escritores Del
Nuevo Sol, Writers

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of the New Sun, which was
another group that Francisco

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started.

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Francisco, wherever he went,
he started a writers' group.

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So this writers' group hasn't
had an anthology for 13 years.

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But finally, it came out
with an anthology of work.

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And so I'm going to
read the pieces that

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were chosen by the editor.

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This one's called "Seven
Stories from Seven Heavens."

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"One.

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La Calaca, still
inhabited by life shadow,

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morphed into a ballet dancer
to dance back into life.

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Danced until she unwound
her spirit's fete of life,

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never ends.

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Though alive, she'll
never be again.

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Calaca dances to remember
all life's sweetness,

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because a time released
life passes quickly.

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Two, train whistles
always remind her of him,

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his attention to
details, about the woman

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she'd become, all
those years later.

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How she's fortified
those walls he'd

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mistaken for shyness or
fear during their time

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in the back when.

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No, those walls were solid
until he knocked them down.

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Three, for Chief Theresa Spence
of the Attawapiskat First

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Nations Canada.

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People might have
remembered her.

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She's the one who fasted
against the Keystone Pipeline.

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Spirit tree tied with
sacred direction colors,

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prayer offerings full
of hopes and dreams.

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Fears are kept at bay by
sacrificing and opening

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to the possibilities
of prophecy.

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Fulfilled wishes for
better days of promise,

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a cleansing snow covers
the sleeping ground,

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waiting for the first
awakening of green.

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Four, was a sassafras moon
brought them together.

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They met one early evening,
the satellite barely showing

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its toothy smile, full
of promising newness

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in the mid-autumn sky.

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She walked into the root man's
shop looking for something,

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but couldn't remember what
after seeing him standing there

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staring at her.

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Five, at Celestún, Ekʼ Balam
watches through mangroves.

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The trees, whose
tangled roots centuries

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stuck in the muddy
island swamps, also

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home to crocodile, owl,
turtle, and these magnificent

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scarlet-headed beings who
weighed this estuary, where

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turquoise salty ocean meets
fresh currents to form

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the jade green inlet.

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Six, the stream
is still as glass.

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Earlier, north winds
blew, her waters rushing.

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She stands at the
shore and cries,

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wanting light instead of
heat, love instead of hate,

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poison daggers thrown in words,
wishing different outcomes

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for her mother's life.

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She offers seven guavas,
fragrant of Cuba.

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Seven, hummingbirds dance
over intense currents of air,

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lightly navigating as if with no
effort, whirling light spirals.

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The shape of life,
the sacred mothers

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symbolized in tiny bodies.

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Supreme power concentrated
in these small entities,

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delicate but deadly
are we the women."

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