my book just arrived. the very first poem i opened to was the one that trevino read for us at a makeshift poetry circle we started when a bunch of us ndn poets were stuck in a hotel together in western amman, jordan two years ago. it nearly made me cry. it's below.

buy his new anthology.

- - - - -

Lakota Language Lesson with Benjamin
by Trevino Brings Plenty

I sit at the kitchen table
with my grandfather.
We are learning the Lakota language.
We listen to a cassette recording
he made three years ago.

We sound out the strange words together.
We say the words for
all my relations, good,
woman, horse, cat, dog, home.

All those drinking years he had--
I remember them all.
His marriage, years as a chief
in the Marines, no-good alcoholic children,
granchildren's birthdays, his youngest brother
who drowned, the remainin brother who died
two years ago, his ex-wife who died last year.
My grandfather can't recall any of these.

A brain blood clot pressed down
and crushed his memory.
A year after surgery he has regained
his motor functions and speech.

( the rest )