WEBVTT

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All right, I'm going to
read, to close, a new poem.

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I think I'm going
to read a new poem.

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And this is a poem that has
an Arizona connection as well.

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ASU Center for Borderlands
Imagination and the publication

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HFR, Hayden's Ferry
Review, had a competition

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of Indigenous poetry,
and I was lucky enough--

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this poem was lucky
enough to win.

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And so it has connections
with many things

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that we've spoken about tonight,
I've spoken and shared with you,

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and I hope that it also
ends in a kind of solidarity

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and strength.

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When her body is a battleground.

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One.

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When ikwewag litter
ditches like deer.

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When girl bodies
sink, skipped rocks

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off the greased
fingers of Wiindigo.

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Inademod, ribbons on
our skirt a keening.

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Two.

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Soon funeral casserole
becomes habit.

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Macaroni, corn, hamburger
fix in cold basements.

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Church bakers worry three eggs
in a cake is extravagance.

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As unnecessary as
salt on a tomato,

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as two choruses of goodbye.

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Her fistful of grave
dirt cocked like a gun.

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Nobody can waltz around
death in the end.

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Three.

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When her body is a vermilion
stranger a heaving caught,

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target of gaze.

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When her body is a battleground.

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Four.

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Make of your voice
a search party.

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We, soothsayers, know
predator eyes become rivers.

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Smooth words, a weapon
of maji-manidoog.

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Only a wide open
trunk means no body.

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Five.

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She learns how survivors
speak of their captors.

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My fault, my fault, a
confiteor of grievous.

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Silk gown of words,
bruised skin worn thin.

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Our stories rot, reek
of futurelessness.

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Six.

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On the day she drank
holy water like beer,

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rammed the Ford against
the wrought iron gate.

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Lace doilies, communion wafers
multiplied in virgin births.

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Ladies Aid servers looked away.

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Oh, Saint Nishki, patron
of the Red Landless.

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In death, is faith an
answer or a question?

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Seven.

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What then shall we
craft of the breaking?

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Weep holes in the
clay of our bodies.

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Only a porous heart
withstands floods.

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Eight.

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Maamawi. . . mashkogaabawiyang.

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Together we stand strong.

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[APPLAUSE]

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