for Gotpoetry Live , with Rainmaker (from NYC) and a spotlight likely from Maze Forever.
Thought I’d leave you with this — can’t recall if I ever posted it here; it’s older.
My Favorite Native Legends
my favorite native legend starts like this:
i once saw a man at acoma pueblo
replacing a pine post on his adobe porch
while listening to a battery powered radio
and doing noteworthy monty python routines
with a couple of his friends —
and then of course there’s the one that begins:
in a bar one night a friend of mine insisted
that at one time
tonto
was in love with the lone ranger,
and we’re not talking
multicultural brotherly love either;
but every time he tried
to make a move
the big guy said something like
“hiyo, silver”
and eventually tonto realized
he could do so much better
than a tightass frat boy
with a mask fetish.
and everyone howled and
someone bought a round for the house
and there were more stories but
i can’t remember those right now.
yes, children,
those are my favorites.
note the absence of Coyote and Crow
and that there’s nothing in either one about the Great Spirit.
note that the moon doesn’t speak to the hunter
and that no one’s bones call out to the beloved left behind.
if you want those stories
get thee to a barnes and noble.
i will praise instead
the micmaq man who walks the high structural steel
for a paycheck
and doesn’t drink it away.
i’ll tell you the one about
the old guy who looked like my father
who tried to pay me four bucks
to drive him from mescalero to a bar in alamagordo
and shook my hand when i said i was sorry but
i was going the other way.
let’s hear the one about robin chatterbox
and how she became a doctor. or the one
about the casino that paid for a new school.
or the one about the tv show
that pulled a shameful episode, or the one
about the meth lab that was prayed off the rez
by the old folks.
there are some good new stories out there
for you to tell your children if you’re willing to learn them first.
you don’t need to tell the old ones over and over again.
in the spirit of multiculturalism,
we can always borrow an old one if we need one.
for instance:
see the campfire over there,
the one someone left for dead?
see the ashes starting to stir?
goddamn, is that some kind of bird?
Dark Matter 