WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.003 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.003 --> 00:00:02.670 align:middle line:84%
The next poem is
called "Keeping Watch."

00:00:02.670 --> 00:00:06.030 align:middle line:84%
And it was a memory
of having stood

00:00:06.030 --> 00:00:08.820 align:middle line:84%
in a friend's backyard
in Oregon just

00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:13.200 align:middle line:84%
as the sun was going
down and being amazed

00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:16.920 align:middle line:90%
by the profusion of small life.

00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:19.020 align:middle line:84%
Oregon has slugs
all over the ground.

00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:23.640 align:middle line:90%


00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:27.270 align:middle line:84%
It's a very strange experience
if you've never seen it before.

00:00:27.270 --> 00:00:29.630 align:middle line:84%
This isn't in the poem but
I think what triggered it,

00:00:29.630 --> 00:00:30.130 align:middle line:90%
it does--

00:00:30.130 --> 00:00:33.930 align:middle line:84%
I was thinking of someone
else from Oregon apparently

00:00:33.930 --> 00:00:35.880 align:middle line:84%
had told me that when
they were little kids,

00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:39.630 align:middle line:84%
they used to light
slugs on fire.

00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:42.180 align:middle line:84%
Because they do something
horrible like sizzle

00:00:42.180 --> 00:00:46.440 align:middle line:84%
or something, which
was an awful thing.

00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:49.860 align:middle line:84%
But somehow it
got me into a mood

00:00:49.860 --> 00:00:55.470 align:middle line:84%
for the way life
consumes itself.

00:00:55.470 --> 00:00:57.870 align:middle line:90%
"Keeping Watch."

00:00:57.870 --> 00:01:01.530 align:middle line:84%
In his backyard, he preserves
the smallest reminders

00:01:01.530 --> 00:01:05.730 align:middle line:84%
of his nakedness, his
private white belly crawling

00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:10.200 align:middle line:84%
with roaches without faces
or any apparent purpose.

00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:15.150 align:middle line:84%
Slugs with their own version of
darkness corrupting the grass.

00:01:15.150 --> 00:01:17.430 align:middle line:84%
And that twilight,
he will watch them

00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:22.740 align:middle line:84%
as if he were God, the butcher
without hands to flay his beef.

00:01:22.740 --> 00:01:25.110 align:middle line:84%
The landlord who
was always elsewhere

00:01:25.110 --> 00:01:28.450 align:middle line:84%
with the food in
his back pocket.

00:01:28.450 --> 00:01:33.090 align:middle line:84%
Now and then something
comes over him, disbelief.

00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:37.530 align:middle line:84%
Termites crawl out of tiny
eggs and without hesitation,

00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:40.560 align:middle line:84%
learn the proper
moves, the retreats

00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:45.090 align:middle line:84%
into tunnels and routes,
eat the marvelous wood

00:01:45.090 --> 00:01:47.820 align:middle line:84%
and the rainwater will
flush them like cells

00:01:47.820 --> 00:01:49.800 align:middle line:90%
through clogged veins.

00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:52.980 align:middle line:84%
They drown right in
front of his eyes.

00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:55.470 align:middle line:84%
Each thing eats
the thing smaller

00:01:55.470 --> 00:01:58.470 align:middle line:90%
without remorse or punishment.

00:01:58.470 --> 00:02:02.280 align:middle line:84%
This is what he's been
told to keep quiet about.

00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:05.820 align:middle line:84%
One night the air
will break like glass,

00:02:05.820 --> 00:02:10.320 align:middle line:84%
he will step through like a
scar the healing messenger,

00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:13.890 align:middle line:84%
the angel of insects
who has lost his way.

00:02:13.890 --> 00:02:16.230 align:middle line:90%
And what will he do?

00:02:16.230 --> 00:02:21.450 align:middle line:84%
Meanwhile, he will not accept
and sleep or deep in his wife's

00:02:21.450 --> 00:02:25.860 align:middle line:84%
eyes, tell anyone of the
dense ripening horror,

00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:30.570 align:middle line:84%
like an egg inside him
under the thickening skin,

00:02:30.570 --> 00:02:33.950 align:middle line:84%
tell them that this
is all there is.

00:02:33.950 --> 00:02:35.000 align:middle line:90%