References to, descriptions of, and scenes featuring music abound throughout the novel, acting as a motif that represents the theme of Cultural inheritance as a Form of Self-Recognition.

Before Sani’s dad became distant, before his mom left, and before he moved away from New Mexico, Sani used to sing and write songs and play the guitar almost constantly. Ever since this familial upheaval, Sani has found it harder to engage with this artistic passion. Moth similarly has difficulty connecting with her love for music, mainly articulated through her and Zachary’s former tradition of writing a song each summer.

After Moth and Sani become friends, they rediscover their love for music and the power of music to connect them to their respective ancestries and their absent loved ones. Over the course of the road trip from Virginia to New Mexico, they write a collaborative song, which they also title “Summer Song.” This song is an expression of their connection, their rediscovered ancestral roots, their suffering, and their gradual roads to healing. Music gives them a way to capture the ineffable in song and lyrics, and to tell their personal stories. “The best way to get to know someone,” Moth asserts in the poem “Lyrics & Stories,” “to get beneath their skin & into the bone / is to tell a story & offer music”; while a story can describe a person’s identity, Moth believes music “shows who you are” (86). 

The closing Epilogue poem of the novel reiterates these notions. This scene is set at Madison Square Garden and depicts Sani performing his and Sani’s “Summer Song” from 10 years prior, showing that his relationship with Moth helped him rediscover his Diné roots, make sense of himself, and achieve peace with his past and present.