He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody. by Sherman Alexie

He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.

Sherman Alexie

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Categorized in : Song Wanted Stories

The streetlight outside my house shines on tonight and I'm watching it like it could give me a vision. James ain't talked ever and he looks at that streetlight like it was a word and maybe like it was a verb. James wanted to streetlight me and make me bright and beautiful so all the moths and bats would circle me like I was the center of the world an held secrets.

shine-on circles beautiful

My father was a basketball player, so I loved basketball because he did. It was a direct transference. But, more than that, basketball, in the United States at least, plays the same function that soccer does everyone else in the world. It's the sport of poverty. It's the sport born of poverty. It's the cheapest sport.

basketball soccer sports

He looked into the crowd for approval, saw his mother and father. He waved and they waved back. Smiles and Indian teeth. They were both drunk. Everything familiar and welcome. Everything beautiful.

mother beautiful father

Okay, so maybe I'm romantic... but somebody is supposed to be romantic. Some warrior is supposed to go to war against the imperial forces of cynicism and irony. I am a sentimental soldier.

sentimental soldier war

And none of these people, not one of them, had loved any of the others well enough. Failures, he thought, we're all failures... He wanted his love to be the wine and bread, and the blood and flesh. He reached for her, a dangerous stranger in a city of dangerous strangers, but she turned away from him and walked unsteadily through the crowd. How many loveless people walk among the barely loved?

wine love blood

Spiritual matters should be private. by Sherman Alexie

Spiritual matters should be private.

should spiritual matter

In high school I dated a white woman. She would come to visit me on the rez. And her dad, who was very racist, didn't like that at all. And he told her one time, 'You shouldn't go on the rez if you're white because Indians have a lot of anger in their heart.'

dad anger heart

Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a a skeleton walking one step in front of you. Maybe you don't wear a watch, but your skeletons do, and they always know what time it is.

skeletons watches past

I ain't interested in the truth. I'm interested in the way things... by Sherman Alexie

I ain't interested in the truth. I'm interested in the way things should be.

should way

And I couldn't make fun of her for that dream. It was my dream, too. And Indian boys weren't supposed to dream like that. And white girls from small towns weren't supposed to dream big, either. We were supposed to be happy with our limitations. But there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly.

girl dream fun

I drew because words were too unpredictable. (5) by Sherman Alexie

I drew because words were too unpredictable. (5)

unpredictable

What's the difference between bulimics and anorexics?" I ask. "Anorexics are anorexics all the time," she says, "I'm only bulimic when I'm throwing up." Wow. She sounds just like my dad! "I'm only an alcoholic when I get drunk." There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. Penelope gorges on her pain and then throws it up and flushes it away. My dad drinks his pain away. (107)

dad differences pain

Sometimes it's called passing out and sometimes it's just pretend... by Sherman Alexie

Sometimes it's called passing out and sometimes it's just pretending to be asleep

pretending passing sometimes

Yep, my daddy was an undependable drunk. But he'd never missed any of my organized games, concerts, plays, or picnics. He may not have loved me perfectly, but he loved me as well as he could. (189)

daddy games play

When a glass sits on a table here, people don't wonder if it's half filled or half empty. They just hope it's good beer.

glasses beer people

That's right, I am a book kisser. by Sherman Alexie

That's right, I am a book kisser.

book

...it's like this white-Indian thing has gotten out of control. And the thing with the blacks and the Mexicans. Everybody blaming everybody...I don't know what happened. I can't explain it all. Just look around at the world. Look at this country. Things just aren't like they used to be.' 'Son, things have never been like what you think they used to be.

country son thinking

We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often w... by Sherman Alexie

We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often we've been lied to.

lied should liars

That's the whole point of life, you know? To meet new people. by Sherman Alexie

That's the whole point of life, you know? To meet new people.

meeting-new-people whole people

There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. (107)

addiction going-away pain