A Piece of Cobalt Sky offers visions of beauty that are concealed by mundane everyday life. This volume is written in free-verse, with subtle sound blending that is a fusion of organic rhythms with a stainless steel hint of acerbic modernity. It is reminiscent of Rimbaud, Dylan Thomas, Eugenio Montale, Rainier Marie Rilke, and Fernando Pessoa. Mike Burns weaves a tapestry of fantastic worlds and subtle paradoxes, built on a foundation of philosophical poignancy. He attempts to capture in word images signature moments and rare glimpses into the other world which hides behind the architecture of normal life.

Richard "Dick" Lane is best known for being a standout defensive back in professional football who played fourteen seasons in the National Football League and established records that still stand today. During his rookie season, Lane established the record for most interceptions in a season when he picked off fourteen. The record still stands today, despite the NFL season being several games longer and offenses being much more pass oriented. Lane was known for not only taking the ball away from the offense, but also his bone-jarring hits. To best determine his stature in professional football history, one only has to refer to what his peers had to say about him: ." . . Richard 'Night Train" Lane. I played with him and against him. He was the best I've ever seen." Pat Summerall - Sports Commentator & NFL Player "Train was the greatest defensive back that ever played the game. Period." - Red Hickey - Head Coach of the Baltimore Colts from 1959 to 1968.

Mike Burns--born Hoomothya--was around eight years old in 1872 when the US military murdered his family and as many as seventy-six other Yavapai men, women, and children in the Skeleton Cave Massacre in Arizona. One of only a few young survivors, he was adopted by an army captain and ended up serving as a scout in the US army and adventuring in the West. Before his death in 1934, Burns wrote about the massacre, his time fighting in the Indian Wars during the 1880s, and life among the Kwevkepaya and Tolkepaya Yavapai. His precarious position between the white and Native worlds gives his account a distinctive narrative voice.
Because Burns was unable to find a publisher during his lifetime, these firsthand accounts of history from a Native perspective remained unseen through much of the twentieth century, archived at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott. Now Gregory McNamee has brought Burns's text to life, making this extraordinary tale an accessible and compelling read. Generations after his death, Mike Burns finally gets a chance to tell his story.
This autobiography offers a missing piece of Arizona history--as one of the only Native American accounts of the Skeleton Cave Massacre--and contributes to a growing body of history from a Native perspective. It will be an indispensable tool for scholars and general readers interested in the West--specifically Arizona history, the Apache wars, and Yavapai and Apache history and lifeways.