Summary

“Cloud Watching” is about the history of America and its relationship to Native Americans. Specifically, “Cloud Watching” is a close look at the way American mythology shapes how history is taught. This is why the poem opens with Betsy Ross and George Washington: “Betsy Ross needled hot stars to Mr. Washington’s bedspread—” (1). The poem also makes its way past the anglicized names Mojaves have been listed under on the census, erasing their true identity from the historical record. The next stanza enters museum exhibits talking about how living artifacts, still being used, were put behind glass as if the people using them were already dead.

“Mercy Songs to Melancholy” addresses sadness as a concept, and begs it to release the speaker’s sister. In the first stanza, sadness seems to be a man who has moved into the sister’s home, its suitcases...