I'm going to begin with the first poem
of "Bright Dead Things."
A poem was written for the day before the Kentucky Derby,
which is the Kentucky Oaks day, which
is when all the female horses race-- when the fillies race.
"How to triumph like a girl.
I like the lady horses best.
How they make it all look easy, like running 40 miles per hour
is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger after winning.
Ears up, girls, ears up.
But mainly, let's be honest,
I like that they're ladies.
As if this big dangerous animal is also a part of me.
That somewhere inside the delicate skin of my body,
there pumps an 8-pound female horse heart, giant with power,
heavy with blood.
Don't you want to believe it?
Don't you want to lift my shirt and see the huge beating genius
machine that thinks,
no, it knows it's going to come in first."