WEBVTT NOTE Created by CaptionSync from Automatic Sync Technologies www.automaticsync.com 00:00:00.386 --> 00:00:06.696 align:middle >> Ok. There's other stories that I have to read, but I think I'm going to ask 00:00:07.066 --> 00:00:12.476 align:middle if anybody has a request as my last thing to read. 00:00:12.476 --> 00:00:17.396 align:middle Does anybody have something they would like me to read that you know of that's your favorite? 00:00:19.516 --> 00:00:20.236 align:middle Leyla? 00:00:21.856 --> 00:00:23.056 align:middle Ok. 00:00:26.546 --> 00:00:27.896 align:middle This is for you. 00:00:30.476 --> 00:00:33.666 align:middle The poem is called Interface and it's on page -- 00:00:41.046 --> 00:00:42.376 align:middle What page is it on? 00:00:42.376 --> 00:00:48.876 align:middle One forty eight, for those of you who want to follow me to see that I read correctly. 00:00:51.686 --> 00:00:56.666 align:middle You will find that, as I read, every time I read a poem, I change it slightly. 00:00:59.046 --> 00:01:04.796 align:middle Sometimes I carry the pen with me and, as I'm reading, I'm -- 00:01:04.796 --> 00:01:08.006 align:middle But I felt I was going too far, so I stopped doing it. 00:01:08.006 --> 00:01:09.776 align:middle Now I just change the words orally. 00:01:19.416 --> 00:01:20.086 align:middle Interface. 00:01:20.886 --> 00:01:23.626 align:middle She'd always been there, occupying the same room. 00:01:24.206 --> 00:01:27.386 align:middle It was only when I looked at the edges of things, 00:01:27.386 --> 00:01:31.126 align:middle my eyes going wide, watering, objects blurring. 00:01:31.526 --> 00:01:35.316 align:middle Where before there'd only been empty space, I sensed layers 00:01:35.316 --> 00:01:38.886 align:middle and layers felt the air in the room thicken. 00:01:40.026 --> 00:01:45.356 align:middle Behind my eyelids, the white flash, a thin noise, that's when I could see her. 00:01:46.966 --> 00:01:53.066 align:middle Once, I accidentally ran my arm through her body, felt heat on one side of my face. 00:01:53.066 --> 00:01:54.236 align:middle She wasn't solid. 00:01:55.146 --> 00:01:57.126 align:middle The shock pushed me against the wall, 00:01:57.826 --> 00:02:03.616 align:middle a torrent of day swept past me before I tried to see her again. 00:02:04.786 --> 00:02:08.826 align:middle She had never wanted to be flesh, she told me, until she met me. 00:02:09.436 --> 00:02:16.136 align:middle At first, it was hard to stay on the border between the physical world and hers. 00:02:16.416 --> 00:02:20.646 align:middle It was only there, at the interface, that we could see each other. 00:02:21.516 --> 00:02:24.186 align:middle See? We wanted to touch. 00:02:24.676 --> 00:02:30.376 align:middle I wish I could become pulsing color, pure sound, bodiless as she. 00:02:30.376 --> 00:02:35.426 align:middle It was impossible, she said, for humans to become liminal. 00:02:36.056 --> 00:02:40.626 align:middle What does it feel like, she asked, to inhabit flesh, 00:02:41.006 --> 00:02:45.146 align:middle to wear blood like threads constantly running? 00:02:46.376 --> 00:02:50.146 align:middle I would lie on the bed talking, she would hover over me. 00:02:51.036 --> 00:02:52.156 align:middle Did I say talk? 00:02:53.056 --> 00:02:54.426 align:middle We did not use words. 00:02:54.996 --> 00:02:58.306 align:middle I pushed my thoughts towards, towards her. 00:02:59.066 --> 00:03:04.396 align:middle Her voice was a breath of air stirring my hair, filling my head. 00:03:05.766 --> 00:03:10.456 align:middle Once Lupe, my roommate, walked right through her, dangling the car keys. 00:03:13.906 --> 00:03:20.706 align:middle I felt Leyla shiver, a pure -- I named her Leyla, a pure sound. 00:03:22.116 --> 00:03:26.236 align:middle I don't know when I noticed that she began to glow, 00:03:26.856 --> 00:03:30.396 align:middle to look more substantial than the blurred furniture. 00:03:31.506 --> 00:03:38.776 align:middle It was then I felt a slight touch, her hand, a tendril of fog on the sheets 00:03:38.776 --> 00:03:46.096 align:middle where she'd lain, a slight crease, a dampness, a smell between candles and skin. 00:03:47.026 --> 00:03:48.656 align:middle You're changing, I told her. 00:03:48.846 --> 00:03:51.596 align:middle A yearning deluged me. 00:03:51.836 --> 00:03:52.716 align:middle Her yearning. 00:03:53.656 --> 00:03:55.986 align:middle That's when I knew she wanted to be flesh. 00:03:56.966 --> 00:03:59.766 align:middle She stayed insubstantial day after day. 00:03:59.766 --> 00:04:06.186 align:middle So I tried to blur my borders to float, become pure sound, 00:04:06.946 --> 00:04:10.666 align:middle but my body seemed heavier and more inert. 00:04:11.726 --> 00:04:14.556 align:middle I remember when she changed. 00:04:14.696 --> 00:04:20.866 align:middle I could hear the faraway slough of traffic on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. 00:04:21.296 --> 00:04:24.866 align:middle The people downstairs were playing salsa. 00:04:28.446 --> 00:04:33.846 align:middle We lay enclosed by margins, hymns, where only we existed. 00:04:34.466 --> 00:04:38.346 align:middle She was stroking, stroking my arms, my legs, 00:04:38.886 --> 00:04:43.456 align:middle marveling at their solidity, the warmth of my flesh smell. 00:04:44.326 --> 00:04:50.886 align:middle When I touched her fog, she felt like dense fog, the color of smoke. 00:04:51.796 --> 00:04:52.816 align:middle She glowed. 00:04:52.986 --> 00:05:01.906 align:middle My hands paled, then gleamed as I moved them over her smoke fog pressing against my eyelids, 00:05:01.906 --> 00:05:04.866 align:middle my mouth, ears, nostrils, navel. 00:05:04.866 --> 00:05:10.456 align:middle A cool tendril pressing between my legs, entering. 00:05:11.546 --> 00:05:12.876 align:middle Her finger, I thought. 00:05:15.286 --> 00:05:17.556 align:middle But it went on and on. 00:05:18.466 --> 00:05:22.006 align:middle At the same time, an icing has touched my anus and she was 00:05:22.006 --> 00:05:26.196 align:middle in and in and in, my mouth opening. 00:05:26.196 --> 00:05:28.866 align:middle I wasn't scared, just astonished. 00:05:30.196 --> 00:05:35.206 align:middle Rain drummed against my spine, turned to steam as it rushed through my veins. 00:05:35.936 --> 00:05:38.546 align:middle Light flickered over me from toe to crown. 00:05:39.376 --> 00:05:47.346 align:middle Looking down my body, I saw her forearm, elbow and hand sticking out of my stomach. 00:05:48.046 --> 00:05:50.996 align:middle Saw her hand slide in. 00:05:51.766 --> 00:05:54.966 align:middle I wanted no food, no water, nothing. 00:05:54.966 --> 00:05:59.836 align:middle Just her pure light sound inside me. 00:06:01.096 --> 00:06:03.826 align:middle My roommate thought I was having an affair. 00:06:05.376 --> 00:06:07.516 align:middle I was radiant, she said. 00:06:09.156 --> 00:06:10.866 align:middle Leyla had begun to swell. 00:06:10.866 --> 00:06:12.776 align:middle I started hurting a little. 00:06:13.216 --> 00:06:19.416 align:middle When I started cramping, she pushed out her fingers, forearm, shoulder. 00:06:20.216 --> 00:06:22.636 align:middle Then she stood before me. 00:06:23.676 --> 00:06:29.706 align:middle Fragile skin, sinews, tender as baby birds and as transparent. 00:06:30.766 --> 00:06:33.956 align:middle She, who had never eaten, began to hunger. 00:06:34.016 --> 00:06:43.296 align:middle I held a cup of milk to her mouth, put her hand on my throat, made swallowing sounds. 00:06:44.256 --> 00:06:50.226 align:middle I spooned mashed banana into her bird mouth, hid the baby food under the bed. 00:06:51.406 --> 00:06:54.466 align:middle One day, my roommate asked who was staying in my room. 00:06:56.356 --> 00:06:57.776 align:middle She'd heard movements. 00:06:58.706 --> 00:07:02.976 align:middle A friend recovering from a contagious skin disease, I said. 00:07:07.056 --> 00:07:11.206 align:middle She ran out saying I'm going to the Cape indefinitely. 00:07:11.376 --> 00:07:11.876 align:middle See you. 00:07:14.636 --> 00:07:16.456 align:middle We had the house to ourselves. 00:07:16.456 --> 00:07:19.186 align:middle I taught her how to clean herself, to flush. 00:07:19.776 --> 00:07:23.586 align:middle She would stand before the mirror, watching her ears long 00:07:23.586 --> 00:07:27.736 align:middle and diaphanous, began to get smaller, thicker. 00:07:29.086 --> 00:07:31.356 align:middle She spent a lot of time at the window. 00:07:32.396 --> 00:07:36.216 align:middle Once I caught her imitating the shuffle of the bag lady. 00:07:37.046 --> 00:07:38.766 align:middle No, like this, I told her. 00:07:39.246 --> 00:07:40.816 align:middle Head up, shoulders back. 00:07:41.696 --> 00:07:44.816 align:middle I brought the TV in-- I brought in the TV. 00:07:44.816 --> 00:07:48.656 align:middle This is how humans love, hate, I said. 00:07:50.136 --> 00:07:53.876 align:middle Once we sat on the stoop watching a neighbor sweep the sidewalk. 00:07:54.556 --> 00:07:56.586 align:middle Hello? He yelled. 00:07:57.406 --> 00:07:58.766 align:middle Hello, I yelled back. 00:07:59.696 --> 00:08:01.186 align:middle Hey-o, she whispered. 00:08:02.256 --> 00:08:05.826 align:middle Watch my lips, Leyla. 00:08:06.926 --> 00:08:08.646 align:middle Say it, Leyla. 00:08:09.606 --> 00:08:10.736 align:middle Good, I love you. 00:08:11.636 --> 00:08:13.666 align:middle Ah, uf, uh, she said. 00:08:14.726 --> 00:08:20.016 align:middle Soon Leyla could pass, go for milk at the bodega, count change, 00:08:20.926 --> 00:08:27.666 align:middle but no matter how passionately we made love, it was never like before. 00:08:28.746 --> 00:08:30.546 align:middle She'd taken on skin and bone. 00:08:31.146 --> 00:08:33.656 align:middle Do you ever want to go back? 00:08:33.656 --> 00:08:34.236 align:middle I asked her. 00:08:35.036 --> 00:08:37.346 align:middle No, it's slower here. 00:08:37.436 --> 00:08:38.076 align:middle I like that. 00:08:38.076 --> 00:08:41.516 align:middle I hate summers in New York City, I told her. 00:08:41.856 --> 00:08:43.416 align:middle I wish it was winter already. 00:08:43.596 --> 00:08:49.596 align:middle The temperature dropped 10 degrees, 20 and when a chill wind began to blow in Brooklyn, 00:08:49.596 --> 00:08:54.496 align:middle I told her to stop messing with the cycles that affected others. 00:08:55.066 --> 00:08:59.206 align:middle I watched what I said and led Leyla run the place. 00:08:59.386 --> 00:09:02.306 align:middle She had snow in the living room, a tree in the bathtub - 00:09:05.546 --> 00:09:08.216 align:middle Nights, I lit the illegal fireplace. 00:09:08.896 --> 00:09:12.406 align:middle Once when reaching toward a high shelf, I wished I was taller. 00:09:13.236 --> 00:09:16.616 align:middle When my head touched the ceiling, I had to yell at her to stop. 00:09:17.016 --> 00:09:17.726 align:middle Reverse. 00:09:21.216 --> 00:09:22.276 align:middle How do you do it? 00:09:22.276 --> 00:09:22.906 align:middle I asked her. 00:09:24.106 --> 00:09:25.756 align:middle You do it too, she said. 00:09:26.316 --> 00:09:31.976 align:middle My specie just does it faster, instantly, merely by thinking it. 00:09:34.086 --> 00:09:37.556 align:middle The first time she rode the subway, I had to drag her out. 00:09:38.006 --> 00:09:43.426 align:middle I suppose it was the noise, the colors flashing by, the odd people that held her gaze. 00:09:44.246 --> 00:09:50.496 align:middle I had to do a gig in LA, speak at a conference, was short on cash, but she wanted to come. 00:09:54.366 --> 00:09:58.976 align:middle She walked past the flight attendants, didn't even have to hide in the lavatory. 00:10:00.436 --> 00:10:01.046 align:middle She laughed. 00:10:01.046 --> 00:10:05.086 align:middle At my amazement, said humans only saw what they were told to see. 00:10:07.556 --> 00:10:09.946 align:middle Last Christmas, I took her home to Texas. 00:10:13.186 --> 00:10:14.066 align:middle Mom liked her. 00:10:20.226 --> 00:10:21.216 align:middle Is she a les? 00:10:21.216 --> 00:10:22.256 align:middle My brothers asked. 00:10:25.046 --> 00:10:26.856 align:middle I said no, just an alien. 00:10:32.236 --> 00:10:33.166 align:middle Leyla laughed. 00:10:33.166 --> 00:10:33.646 align:middle Thank you.