WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.760 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:01.260 align:middle line:90%
"Polio."

00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:03.840 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:06.240 align:middle line:90%
My mother became paralyzed.

00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:09.720 align:middle line:84%
Then the family fell
apart like the petals of a

00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:12.990 align:middle line:90%
rose I used to blow on once.

00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:15.660 align:middle line:84%
My room with organdy
curtains and silver

00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:20.370 align:middle line:84%
ribbon in the wallpaper,
clumps of violets

00:00:20.370 --> 00:00:24.870 align:middle line:84%
that through the years
never faded like my heart.

00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:29.850 align:middle line:84%
I say this only because
after polio, we turned around

00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:32.439 align:middle line:90%
and never looked back.

00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:38.280 align:middle line:84%
So it was the ragged hedges,
the kitchen full of strangers.

00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:43.400 align:middle line:84%
I had never been beautiful,
but now it was really so.

00:00:43.400 --> 00:00:44.000 align:middle line:90%