WEBVTT

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So of course, in the
section on companionship,

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there are poems about our pets,
cats and dogs and all that.

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And there's a poem about
javelinas out in the desert.

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But I wanted you to hear
this wonderful poem--

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if I can find it here.

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The book is just out.

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--by Jose Hernandez Diaz.

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And it's a poem about the owl.

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Thank you for bringing
them into the room for me.

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Tecolote.

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The Mexican word for owl is
tecolote from the Nahuatl,

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tecolotl.

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I think it sounds beautiful
in both languages, both

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of my origins.

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My favorite bird
is the tecolote.

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The way it sits in the
tree, wise insomniac, alone.

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Only company is rain.

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At night it comes alive.

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A little moon, a myth,
a continent of leaves.

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At midnight the tecolote
transforms into a jaguar,

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into a python, into a dragon.

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When I was younger, my mom used
to tell me I was like a tecolote

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because I would stay
up late to watch

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Letterman or Conan O'Brien.

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Then as a teenager,
I was a tecolote

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because I would go out late
with friends and party.

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Now, at 35, I'm getting a tattoo
of a tecolote on my forearm.

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Reminder of my childhood,
my ancestry, the night.

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Gracias tecolote,
protector of moon and sky.