The smallest species of sheep had evolved in the tropical ecosystem of the Dominican Republic. Like most quadrupeds of the time, they had one set of teeth to last a lifetime, holes in the lining of their eardrums, eyes that burned some afternoons, and seemed to have a bird's crucial feather floating around in their brains. A herd of them living on a patch of wild lawn on the shore of Boca Chica beach. Between the green blades of grass the miniature sheep grazed throughout the day. They were no bigger than ants. I squatted down and fed them bits of a discarded mango. I liked watching them cart away bits of the flesh. I liked their black-and-white hair. I kept seagulls away from them. They walked up my arm in a line, baying all the way. I carried them out to the edge of the ocean. A few of the lambs confused the roar and the splash of the waves for the beat of their own hearts. The others listened to the sound of my voice reach down into the deep until it struck the lost black boxes of fallen airplanes. They listened carefully, and I wondered if they'd developed a fondness for me, if one day they'd place a crown of giant lilies on my head, bow down on two hooves, and call me their queen.
"I'm not offering a prescription. Just Us is a book that says, look at this. Let's see what it means to be in conversation. Let's see what it means to try to apprehend the same reality. When you see a man put his knee on another man's neck until he dies and has to call out for his mother—what is behind that? What allows us both to be able to hold that as part of America?"
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"Most of all, however, Curt was interested in cement, its powerful malleability. Cement could allow you to fashion new things never before seen on the landscape, or it could just as well slink back to imitate the forms that were already there. I, on the other hand, was not a ready fan of this material. I couldn’t deny that it disgusted me, had always disgusted me, but now especially, when the hum of construction was all-present in Indian cities as to never stop. Cement was simply a mainstay in the air we breathed."
