Open your book to the first page of the poem. Danny Lopez, Tohono O'odham storyteller and teacher, wrote the introduction to the book. He also served as the cultural advisor for the text. Danny helped me choose authentic words and taught me more than books could about his traditions so that my writing would be more accurate. The blazing hot sun hovers high in the sky.
Cicadas make music a sharp scraping sound.
The spreading mesquite trees hang close to the ground. It also tells about how the Tohono O'odham harvest the fruit of the saguaro cactus, cook it to make a syrup, ferment some of the syrup into wine, and drink the saguaro fruit wine as part of their annual rain-making ceremony. This sound file will let you hear the beginning of the poem being read by the author.