Language in this poem has leaped from “The Three Little Bears,” which I was remixing for my niece over the phone before I sat down to write this poem. In terms of the oral story, these are some of the phrases that rose up from my telling: “Just right,” which is what the narrator says each time Goldilocks finds something that suits her, and “eat it all up,” which is what she did to the baby bear’s porridge, and “break all your chairs to pieces,” since she broke baby bear’s chair. Finally, “And here I still am,” which is a leap from “And here she still is,” which is how I tell the moment when they found her in baby bear’s bed. This is also a Marfa poem.

Grief Work:

Auxocromo and Cromóforo are in reference to a letter Frida Kahlo wrote to Diego Rivera: “Tu te llamarás AUXOCROMO el que capta el color. Yo CROMOFORO - la que da el color.” Or, as translated: “You could be called Auxocromo—the one who takes color. I Cromoforo—the one who gives color.”

Acknowledgments

Gracias to the interlocutors, instigators, storytellers, wonderers, lovers and lovers of languages, amig@s y familia, who are part of my image-scape, language-scape, and heart-scape.

Gracias to Jeff Shotts and the Graywolf team for inviting me into your family, and for your intentionality and care.

Gracias to the following journals, spaces, and editors who held these poems in their earliest versions and publics: The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The Believer, BOMB, Boston Review, BuzzFeed, Connotations Press and A Poetry Congeries, Drunken Boat, Freeman’s, Indian Country Today, The Kenyon Review, Lenny Letter, Literary Hub, Narrative Magazine, New Poets of Native Nations, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Orion, The Paris-American, PEN America, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Southern Humanities Review, Spillway Journal, Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, and thethepoetry.com.

Gracias to the following foundations and persons who have opened their doors and imaginations, collaborating with me in energy and wonder as I wandered toward many of these poems: Jen Benka and all the good heart and mind work she does for poetry; Alex Dimitrov, Matthew Shinoda, and Samiya Bashir who placed some of these poems in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day; Saeed Jones at BuzzFeed News, Carin Kuoni of Vera List Center; and to Kwame Dawes for always pushing and sparking and helping me bring the basketball to the page. Gracias a la maestra Elizabeth Alexander who has changed the landscape of love, intellect, and imagination for all of us, on and off the page. Gracias to Michael Wiegers and Copper Canyon for your support.

Gracias to Patrick Lannan, Martha Jessup, Jo Chapman, and the Lannan Foundation—you have made so much poetry and language possible for me, including this book.

Gracias to the following people and spaces where I have been invited, held, supported, and inspired: Tracy K. Smith and Susan Wheeler at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts Hodder Fellowship; Dana Prescott and Civitella Ranieri Foundation; Deana Haggag and the United States Artists Foundation; Native Arts and Cultures Foundation; Jessica Rankin and Denniston Hill; Tyler Meier and the University of Arizona Poetry Center; Alexander Chee and the Ace Hotel New York Dear Reader Residency; The MacArthur Foundation; the Rupert Residency Program; the College at Arizona State University including my colleagues in Creative Writing and Jeffery Cohen, Krista Ratcliffe, Mark Searle, and President Michael Crowe.