WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.410 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.410 --> 00:00:03.060 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "Deer Dancer." 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:05.800 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.800 --> 00:00:08.140 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to do something with this story 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:10.520 align:middle line:84% for a long time and I still don't think the story-- 00:00:10.520 --> 00:00:12.880 align:middle line:84% I think there's still more to go in the story, 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:15.920 align:middle line:84% but the poem I think is pretty much done, 00:00:15.920 --> 00:00:18.880 align:middle line:84% and it was a story that I was told in an Indian bar up 00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:20.560 align:middle line:90% in Milwaukee. 00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:25.570 align:middle line:84% That what had happened, I guess, it was probably a Monday night 00:00:25.570 --> 00:00:27.790 align:middle line:84% and it was even cold for the people there. 00:00:27.790 --> 00:00:30.670 align:middle line:90% 00:00:30.670 --> 00:00:33.730 align:middle line:84% And there's just a few guys there, a few holdovers-- 00:00:33.730 --> 00:00:36.340 align:middle line:84% you know, the guys that will still be there when the bar is 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:37.940 align:middle line:90% long gone-- 00:00:37.940 --> 00:00:40.750 align:middle line:84% and they said this beautiful woman came in one night. 00:00:40.750 --> 00:00:43.300 align:middle line:90% 00:00:43.300 --> 00:00:46.990 align:middle line:84% Her beauty was like nothing that they had ever seen before. 00:00:46.990 --> 00:00:49.930 align:middle line:84% And they thought they knew what tribe she was 00:00:49.930 --> 00:00:52.270 align:middle line:84% and they were trying to figure out what family. 00:00:52.270 --> 00:00:56.650 align:middle line:84% And all the eyes were on her she walked over and bought a drink. 00:00:56.650 --> 00:01:00.910 align:middle line:84% And then she went over and put a quarter in the jukebox 00:01:00.910 --> 00:01:04.660 align:middle line:84% and it went and played, of all songs, that song, "Lucille." 00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:08.380 align:middle line:84% You know, "you picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille." 00:01:08.380 --> 00:01:10.660 align:middle line:84% And then got up on one of the tables 00:01:10.660 --> 00:01:13.240 align:middle line:84% and took her clothes off to the song. 00:01:13.240 --> 00:01:15.135 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:15.135 --> 00:01:16.510 align:middle line:84% Well, I guess then what happened, 00:01:16.510 --> 00:01:19.838 align:middle line:84% the guys all ran over and put a ton of quarters in the jukebox 00:01:19.838 --> 00:01:20.380 align:middle line:90% and punched-- 00:01:20.380 --> 00:01:22.540 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:22.540 --> 00:01:27.490 align:middle line:84% --punched Lucille, but I don't know what happened after that. 00:01:27.490 --> 00:01:29.590 align:middle line:84% But I've always wondered about that woman. 00:01:29.590 --> 00:01:31.540 align:middle line:84% What had happened and why she had come in 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:34.580 align:middle line:84% and put that particular song on and I 00:01:34.580 --> 00:01:38.800 align:middle line:84% don't think that no one ever saw her after that. 00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:41.590 align:middle line:90% "Deer Dancer." 00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:45.010 align:middle line:84% Nearly everyone had left that bar in the middle of winter 00:01:45.010 --> 00:01:47.830 align:middle line:90% except the hardcore. 00:01:47.830 --> 00:01:50.470 align:middle line:84% It was the coldest night of the year. 00:01:50.470 --> 00:01:54.340 align:middle line:84% Every place shut down, but not us. 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:58.280 align:middle line:84% Of course we noticed when she came in. 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:00.280 align:middle line:90% We were Indian ruins. 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:03.070 align:middle line:90% She was the end of beauty. 00:02:03.070 --> 00:02:07.570 align:middle line:84% No one knew her, the stranger whose tribe we recognized. 00:02:07.570 --> 00:02:11.710 align:middle line:84% Her family related to deer, if that's who she was. 00:02:11.710 --> 00:02:15.400 align:middle line:84% A people accustomed to hearing songs in pine trees 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.400 align:middle line:90% and making them hearts. 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:20.380 align:middle line:84% The woman inside the woman who was 00:02:20.380 --> 00:02:25.180 align:middle line:84% to dance naked in the bar of misfits, blue deer magic. 00:02:25.180 --> 00:02:30.700 align:middle line:84% Henry Jack, who could not survive a sober day, 00:02:30.700 --> 00:02:34.840 align:middle line:84% thought she was Buffalo Calf Woman come back, passed out, 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:37.180 align:middle line:90% his head by the toilet. 00:02:37.180 --> 00:02:40.630 align:middle line:84% All night he dreamed a dream he couldn't say. 00:02:40.630 --> 00:02:43.810 align:middle line:84% The next day he borrowed money, went home, 00:02:43.810 --> 00:02:46.480 align:middle line:90% and sent back the money I lent. 00:02:46.480 --> 00:02:48.880 align:middle line:90% Now that's a miracle. 00:02:48.880 --> 00:02:52.060 align:middle line:84% Some people see vision in a burned tortilla, 00:02:52.060 --> 00:02:55.490 align:middle line:90% some in the face of a woman. 00:02:55.490 --> 00:02:59.740 align:middle line:84% This is the bar of broken survivors, the club of shotgun, 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:03.160 align:middle line:84% knife wound, of poison by culture. 00:03:03.160 --> 00:03:07.270 align:middle line:84% We who were taught not to stare drank our beer. 00:03:07.270 --> 00:03:09.880 align:middle line:84% The players gossiped down their cues. 00:03:09.880 --> 00:03:14.740 align:middle line:84% Someone put a quarter in the jukebox to relive despair. 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:17.560 align:middle line:90% Richard's wife dove to kill her. 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:22.000 align:middle line:84% We had to hold her back, empty her pocket of knives and diaper 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:25.270 align:middle line:84% pins, buy her two drinks to keep her still, 00:03:25.270 --> 00:03:29.320 align:middle line:84% while Richard secretly bought the beauty a drink. 00:03:29.320 --> 00:03:30.760 align:middle line:90% How do I say it? 00:03:30.760 --> 00:03:32.950 align:middle line:84% In this language there are no words 00:03:32.950 --> 00:03:35.950 align:middle line:84% for how the real world collapses. 00:03:35.950 --> 00:03:38.680 align:middle line:84% I could say it in my own and the sacred mounds 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:41.290 align:middle line:84% would come into focus, but I couldn't take it 00:03:41.290 --> 00:03:43.660 align:middle line:90% in this dingy envelope. 00:03:43.660 --> 00:03:46.600 align:middle line:84% So I look at the stars in this strange city, 00:03:46.600 --> 00:03:50.530 align:middle line:84% frozen to the back of the sky, the only promises that 00:03:50.530 --> 00:03:53.080 align:middle line:90% ever make sense. 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:55.840 align:middle line:84% My brother-in-law hung out with white people, 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.590 align:middle line:84% went to law school with a perfect record, quit. 00:03:59.590 --> 00:04:03.940 align:middle line:84% Says you can keep your laws, your words, and practice law 00:04:03.940 --> 00:04:06.370 align:middle line:90% on the street with his hands. 00:04:06.370 --> 00:04:08.470 align:middle line:84% He jimmied to the proverbial dream 00:04:08.470 --> 00:04:11.440 align:middle line:84% girl, the face of the moon, while the players 00:04:11.440 --> 00:04:13.270 align:middle line:90% racked a new game. 00:04:13.270 --> 00:04:15.880 align:middle line:84% Bragged, he told her magic lines, 00:04:15.880 --> 00:04:19.600 align:middle line:84% and that's when she broke, became human. 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:22.780 align:middle line:84% But we all heard his bar voice crack. 00:04:22.780 --> 00:04:26.920 align:middle line:84% What's a girl like you doing in a place like this? 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:29.290 align:middle line:90% That's what I'd like to know. 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:33.660 align:middle line:84% What are we all doing in a place like this? 00:04:33.660 --> 00:04:37.130 align:middle line:84% You would know she could hear only what she wanted to. 00:04:37.130 --> 00:04:38.900 align:middle line:90% Don't we all? 00:04:38.900 --> 00:04:43.520 align:middle line:84% Left the drink of betrayal Richard bought her at the bar. 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:45.080 align:middle line:90% What was she on? 00:04:45.080 --> 00:04:47.045 align:middle line:90% We all wanted some. 00:04:47.045 --> 00:04:49.070 align:middle line:90% Put a quarter in the juke. 00:04:49.070 --> 00:04:52.550 align:middle line:84% We all take risks stepping into thin air. 00:04:52.550 --> 00:04:57.980 align:middle line:84% Our ceremonies didn't predict this or we expected more. 00:04:57.980 --> 00:05:02.330 align:middle line:84% I had to tell you this, for the baby inside the girl sealed up 00:05:02.330 --> 00:05:06.410 align:middle line:84% with a lick of hope and swimming into praise of nations. 00:05:06.410 --> 00:05:09.830 align:middle line:84% This is not a rooming house but a dream of winter 00:05:09.830 --> 00:05:14.750 align:middle line:84% falls and a deer who portrayed the relatives of strangers. 00:05:14.750 --> 00:05:19.700 align:middle line:84% The way back is deer breath on icy windows. 00:05:19.700 --> 00:05:22.970 align:middle line:84% The next dance none of us predicted. 00:05:22.970 --> 00:05:26.630 align:middle line:84% She borrowed a chair for the stairway to heaven 00:05:26.630 --> 00:05:30.170 align:middle line:84% and stood on a table of names and danced 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:32.620 align:middle line:90% in the room of children.