WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.320 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.320 --> 00:00:02.460 align:middle line:90% This is a new poem. 00:00:02.460 --> 00:00:06.180 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.180 --> 00:00:07.410 align:middle line:90% And it's called, "Children." 00:00:07.410 --> 00:00:14.900 align:middle line:90% 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.960 align:middle line:90% "What good are children anyhow? 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:20.000 align:middle line:90% They only break your heart. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.040 align:middle line:84% The one that bore your fondest hopes 00:00:22.040 --> 00:00:24.680 align:middle line:90% will never amount to anything. 00:00:24.680 --> 00:00:26.450 align:middle line:84% The one you slaved to give the chances you 00:00:26.450 --> 00:00:29.960 align:middle line:84% never had rejects them with contempt. 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:32.299 align:middle line:84% They won't take care of you in your old age. 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:34.550 align:middle line:90% They don't even write home. 00:00:34.550 --> 00:00:36.410 align:middle line:84% They don't follow in your footsteps. 00:00:36.410 --> 00:00:38.330 align:middle line:90% They don't avoid your mistakes. 00:00:38.330 --> 00:00:40.520 align:middle line:84% It's impossible to save them from pain. 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:43.790 align:middle line:84% And, of course, they never listen. 00:00:43.790 --> 00:00:45.380 align:middle line:84% Remember how you hung on the lips 00:00:45.380 --> 00:00:48.600 align:middle line:84% of your father or grandfather, begging for the old stories? 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:50.240 align:middle line:90% 'Again! 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:51.200 align:middle line:90% Tell it again. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:53.195 align:middle line:84% What was it like in olden times?' 00:00:53.195 --> 00:00:57.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:57.530 --> 00:01:01.250 align:middle line:90% We have good stories, too-- 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:04.640 align:middle line:90% funny, instructive, pathetic. 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:06.500 align:middle line:90% Forget it. 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:09.920 align:middle line:84% Write them down for your friends, your friends with whom 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:11.690 align:middle line:90% you have that unspoken pact. 00:01:11.690 --> 00:01:13.550 align:middle line:90% Don't ask me about my children. 00:01:13.550 --> 00:01:16.760 align:middle line:90% And I won't inquire of yours. 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:19.820 align:middle line:84% Remember how we used to exchange instant pictures, how 00:01:19.820 --> 00:01:21.740 align:middle line:84% we boasted of cute sayings, how we-- 00:01:21.740 --> 00:01:23.840 align:middle line:90% forget it. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:26.810 align:middle line:84% Put away those scrapbooks with the rusted flute in the closet, 00:01:26.810 --> 00:01:29.060 align:middle line:90% with the soiled ballet slippers. 00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:31.610 align:middle line:90% Tear up the clumsy valentines. 00:01:31.610 --> 00:01:36.350 align:middle line:84% Tear up every crayon scrap that says, 'I love you, mama.' 00:01:36.350 --> 00:01:38.450 align:middle line:84% They don't want us to keep these mementos. 00:01:38.450 --> 00:01:44.030 align:middle line:84% They find them embarrassing, those relics of dependent love, 00:01:44.030 --> 00:01:48.590 align:middle line:84% that orange crayon that didn't dare write, 'I hate you.' 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:53.030 align:middle line:84% Forget their birthdays as they forget yours, perhaps 00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:55.490 align:middle line:84% because they never finish anything-- 00:01:55.490 --> 00:01:58.030 align:middle line:90% not a book, not a school. 00:01:58.030 --> 00:02:00.920 align:middle line:84% Their politics are cruel and sentimental. 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:04.280 align:middle line:84% Some monster of depravity who destroyed millions 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:08.180 align:middle line:84% with his smile is a hero to them. 00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:11.660 align:middle line:84% Now he smiles benignly from their walls. 00:02:11.660 --> 00:02:13.220 align:middle line:90% Because they are historyless. 00:02:13.220 --> 00:02:14.900 align:middle line:90% They don't believe in history. 00:02:14.900 --> 00:02:17.540 align:middle line:90% Stalin wasn't so bad. 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:19.730 align:middle line:84% The Holocaust didn't really happen. 00:02:19.730 --> 00:02:22.100 align:middle line:90% Roosevelt was a phony. 00:02:22.100 --> 00:02:26.450 align:middle line:84% But the worst of it is, they don't believe we ever believed. 00:02:26.450 --> 00:02:28.580 align:middle line:84% They don't believe we ever had ideals. 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:30.530 align:middle line:84% They don't believe that we were ever poor. 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:33.050 align:middle line:84% They don't believe that we were ever passionate, 00:02:33.050 --> 00:02:35.990 align:middle line:90% or that we are passionate today. 00:02:35.990 --> 00:02:37.460 align:middle line:90% Forget it. 00:02:37.460 --> 00:02:39.080 align:middle line:90% Don't torture yourself. 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:41.420 align:middle line:84% You still have some life to salvage. 00:02:41.420 --> 00:02:42.410 align:middle line:90% Get divorced. 00:02:42.410 --> 00:02:44.360 align:middle line:90% Go on a diet. 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:48.860 align:middle line:84% Take up the career you dropped for them 20 years ago. 00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:50.780 align:middle line:84% Go back to the schools they deserted 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:51.950 align:middle line:90% and sign up for courses. 00:02:51.950 --> 00:02:53.840 align:middle line:90% Study tranquility, one on one. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:55.010 align:middle line:90% Take meditation. 00:02:55.010 --> 00:02:58.370 align:middle line:90% And roll for renewal. 00:02:58.370 --> 00:03:01.340 align:middle line:84% Remember those older friends we used to envy, 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:03.560 align:middle line:84% brilliant and glittering; the beauty 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:05.990 align:middle line:84% who refused to have children, not 00:03:05.990 --> 00:03:09.770 align:middle line:84% about to sacrifice their careers; who refused the mess, 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:13.100 align:middle line:84% the entrapment, as we toiled over chores 00:03:13.100 --> 00:03:17.990 align:middle line:84% and homework, worried about measles and money? 00:03:17.990 --> 00:03:20.390 align:middle line:90% Have you seen them lately? 00:03:20.390 --> 00:03:23.780 align:middle line:84% They no longer converse in sparkling cadenzas. 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:26.930 align:middle line:84% They're obsessed with their little dog 00:03:26.930 --> 00:03:31.610 align:middle line:84% who piddles on their Oriental rug, who 00:03:31.610 --> 00:03:34.970 align:middle line:90% throws up on the bedspread. 00:03:34.970 --> 00:03:37.310 align:middle line:84% They don't notice his bad breath. 00:03:37.310 --> 00:03:40.760 align:middle line:84% His incessant yapping doesn't seem to disturb them. 00:03:40.760 --> 00:03:42.875 align:middle line:84% To be honest about it, the whole apartment smells. 00:03:42.875 --> 00:03:45.170 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] 00:03:45.170 --> 00:03:48.110 align:middle line:84% And the way they babble to him in pet names instead of talk 00:03:48.110 --> 00:03:50.240 align:middle line:90% of Milton, Chaucer, Dante. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:53.840 align:middle line:84% The way they caress him makes you fairly ill, 00:03:53.840 --> 00:04:00.050 align:middle line:84% the way they call him 'baby.'" Thank you. 00:04:00.050 --> 00:04:03.400 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE APPLAUSE] 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:06.000 align:middle line:90%