As an adult looking back, I am very aware of the conflict my white ethnicity caused for some, and how the dual worlds, or identities, I inhabited battled in my subconscious. The poem, peyote summer, isn't about any of these things directly, but as I'm telling it in the present tense somewhere between my 7 and 11 year-old self, these realities will show themselves here and there throughout the poem.
The poem is dedicated to Jesse, another white kid who shared many similar experiences growing up as I did, and kept me company on the evening of this poem.