So of course, in the section on companionship,
there are poems about our pets, cats and dogs and all that.
And there's a poem about javelinas out in the desert.
But I wanted you to hear this wonderful poem--
if I can find it here.
The book is just out.
--by Jose Hernandez Diaz.
And it's a poem about the owl.
Thank you for bringing them into the room for me.
Tecolote.
The Mexican word for owl is tecolote from the Nahuatl,
tecolotl.
I think it sounds beautiful in both languages, both
of my origins.
My favorite bird is the tecolote.
The way it sits in the tree, wise insomniac, alone.
Only company is rain.
At night it comes alive.
A little moon, a myth, a continent of leaves.
At midnight the tecolote transforms into a jaguar,
into a python, into a dragon.
When I was younger, my mom used to tell me I was like a tecolote
because I would stay up late to watch
Letterman or Conan O'Brien.
Then as a teenager, I was a tecolote
because I would go out late with friends and party.
Now, at 35, I'm getting a tattoo of a tecolote on my forearm.
Reminder of my childhood, my ancestry, the night.
Gracias tecolote, protector of moon and sky.