WEBVTT NOTE Created by CaptionSync from Automatic Sync Technologies www.automaticsync.com 00:00:02.466 --> 00:00:04.196 align:middle >> This is the last poem of mine I will read. 00:00:04.296 --> 00:00:11.196 align:middle I'm also really happy that Poetry Center is doing what it's doing and through reaching 00:00:11.246 --> 00:00:15.876 align:middle out of the University to the community, reaching past the community to community 00:00:15.876 --> 00:00:22.046 align:middle across the border, bringing people together across languages and minds. 00:00:22.986 --> 00:00:26.096 align:middle That's what poetry can and should do. 00:00:29.666 --> 00:00:31.656 align:middle The ark upon his shoulders. 00:00:34.326 --> 00:00:35.906 align:middle My husband did all this. 00:00:36.936 --> 00:00:41.916 align:middle We used to live in a rambling kind of house with gossipy verandas. 00:00:43.026 --> 00:00:48.346 align:middle Then he bought a stove, an iron stove with a reservoir to it. 00:00:48.466 --> 00:00:53.146 align:middle He always insisted it was bad luck to come in that door and go out the other. 00:00:54.046 --> 00:01:00.986 align:middle It's bad luck to pay back salt if you borrow it.To the day he died he smelled pulled 00:01:00.986 --> 00:01:04.426 align:middle up from the dirt. 00:01:04.776 --> 00:01:10.466 align:middle He worked the Norfolk Southern forty years, walking on top of freight trains. 00:01:11.556 --> 00:01:15.356 align:middle I've seen him up there and the wind just blowing. 00:01:15.856 --> 00:01:22.166 align:middle You could see the wind blowing his clothes.Our second house, he built it. 00:01:22.606 --> 00:01:27.306 align:middle Cut me a yard broom from dogwood bushes, tied in three places. 00:01:27.996 --> 00:01:34.536 align:middle Hogs squealed under the floorboards in winter, you could see one through the cracks. 00:01:35.266 --> 00:01:37.876 align:middle He had something he said to hush them. 00:01:39.046 --> 00:01:41.756 align:middle Come up the porch steps arms full of lightwood. 00:01:42.266 --> 00:01:48.126 align:middle In those days, we drank good old cool water out of the well, cool, and put some syrup in it 00:01:48.126 --> 00:01:51.656 align:middle and stir it up and drink it right along with our dinner. 00:01:51.946 --> 00:01:57.676 align:middle The summers were so hot, you saw little devils twizzling out in front of you. 00:01:58.396 --> 00:02:00.496 align:middle He called them lazy jacks. 00:02:01.036 --> 00:02:01.536 align:middle It was the heat. 00:02:02.806 --> 00:02:04.756 align:middle Listen at that bird, he'd say. 00:02:04.836 --> 00:02:07.256 align:middle It's telling us love one another. 00:02:07.576 --> 00:02:15.366 align:middle He caught a ride back from town with seeds and a hoop of greasy cheese 00:02:15.366 --> 00:02:18.836 align:middle and crackers and sardines and light bread. 00:02:19.296 --> 00:02:24.656 align:middle He carried that umbrella over me and I would have his hat walking to church. 00:02:25.626 --> 00:02:32.706 align:middle We lost the first one.The midwife came late, she used dirt-dauber tea for my pains. 00:02:33.686 --> 00:02:40.256 align:middle He tried telling me it wasn't any death owl, it was a ordinary hoot owl outside the house. 00:02:40.756 --> 00:02:44.166 align:middle But I tied a knot in my sheet so it wouldn't quiver. 00:02:44.776 --> 00:02:48.966 align:middle I was in such trouble, he petted me a lot. 00:02:49.296 --> 00:02:56.636 align:middle Three days labor he attended me how a dragonfly hovers over water in the clear sun. 00:02:57.456 --> 00:03:01.696 align:middle The next year we had a beautiful girl baby, Ruthie. 00:03:02.286 --> 00:03:04.206 align:middle Ruthie, after my mother. 00:03:05.086 --> 00:03:08.186 align:middle Towards the end, he was a bit thick-listed. 00:03:08.606 --> 00:03:11.196 align:middle I never yelled though, he read my lips. 00:03:11.926 --> 00:03:18.036 align:middle When the katydid chirps, I miss him saying there'll be forty days until frost. 00:03:18.156 --> 00:03:22.316 align:middle Ones who were in trouble they always sought him out. 00:03:22.316 --> 00:03:24.896 align:middle Listen at that bird, he'd say. 00:03:25.296 --> 00:03:34.426 align:middle The things he knew how to do, he did them. 00:03:36.146 --> 00:03:37.646 align:middle >> El arca sobre sus hombros. 00:03:38.726 --> 00:03:40.156 align:middle Mi esposo hizo todo esto. 00:03:41.066 --> 00:03:44.696 align:middle Antes vivíamos en una casa medio tembeleque de balcones chismosos. 00:03:45.576 --> 00:03:48.826 align:middle Luego, él compró una estufa, una de hierro con su depósito. 00:03:49.356 --> 00:03:54.026 align:middle Siempre insistía en que daba mala suerte entrar por esta puerta y salir por la otra. 00:03:54.126 --> 00:03:58.196 align:middle Es de mala suerte pagar con sal a quien has pedido sal. 00:03:58.696 --> 00:04:02.626 align:middle Hasta el día de su muerte, olía a haber tragado polvo. 00:04:03.346 --> 00:04:08.196 align:middle Trabajó en la Norfolk Southern cuarenta años, caminando sobre trenes de carga. 00:04:08.836 --> 00:04:14.016 align:middle Lo ví allá arriba, el viento soplaba hasta que se veía cómo le alzaba la ropa. 00:04:14.786 --> 00:04:17.016 align:middle Nuestra segunda casa también la construyó. 00:04:17.646 --> 00:04:22.646 align:middle Me hizo una escoba jardinera de ramitas de conejo, amarrada en tres partes. 00:04:23.276 --> 00:04:26.796 align:middle Los marranos chillaban bajo los tablones del suelo en invierno, 00:04:27.276 --> 00:04:28.976 align:middle uno se veía entre las cuarteaduras. 00:04:28.976 --> 00:04:31.476 align:middle Él decía tener algo que los calmaba, 00:04:32.126 --> 00:04:35.686 align:middle subir por los escalones del porche con los brazos llenos de leña. 00:04:35.686 --> 00:04:39.796 align:middle En aquellos días bebíamos agua de pozo, bien fresca, 00:04:40.196 --> 00:04:46.086 align:middle fresca y le poníamos jarabe y la agitábamos y la bebíamos hasta el fondo con la cena. 00:04:46.586 --> 00:04:52.056 align:middle Los veranos eran tan calurosos que se veían diablillos retorciéndose delante de uno. 00:04:52.416 --> 00:04:56.186 align:middle Los llamaba flojonazos, eran por el calor. 00:04:57.456 --> 00:05:01.726 align:middle Escucha a ese pájaro, decía, nos está diciendo amaos los unos a los otros. 00:05:01.766 --> 00:05:07.956 align:middle Le dieron un aventón de regreso del pueblo con semillas y un tonel de queso grasiento y 00:05:08.046 --> 00:05:10.466 align:middle galletas y sardinas y pan ligero. 00:05:11.066 --> 00:05:15.496 align:middle Me ponía aquel paraguas encima y me dejaba su sombrero camino a la iglesia. 00:05:16.706 --> 00:05:17.566 align:middle Perdimos el primero. 00:05:18.346 --> 00:05:21.836 align:middle La partera llegó tarde, me dio té de boldo para los dolores. 00:05:22.456 --> 00:05:26.316 align:middle Él trató de convencerme de que no era un tecolote de mal agüero, 00:05:26.746 --> 00:05:29.316 align:middle sino uno cualquiera, el que estaba afuera de la casa. 00:05:29.946 --> 00:05:33.596 align:middle Yo, de todos modos, hice un nudo en la sábana para que no temblara. 00:05:34.256 --> 00:05:36.806 align:middle Me puse tan mal que él me apapachó bastante. 00:05:37.006 --> 00:05:43.776 align:middle Tres días de trabajo de parto, me atendió como una libélula que revolotea sobre el agua bajo 00:05:43.776 --> 00:05:45.096 align:middle la claridad del sol. 00:05:46.106 --> 00:05:49.516 align:middle Al año siguiente tuvimos una hermosa niñita, Ruthie. 00:05:50.256 --> 00:05:53.786 align:middle Ruthie como mi madre. 00:05:53.856 --> 00:05:59.186 align:middle Al mero final, se puso un poco pesado. 00:05:59.186 --> 00:06:02.276 align:middle No hacía falta que gritara. 00:06:02.866 --> 00:06:05.546 align:middle Él me leía los labios. 00:06:05.546 --> 00:06:11.556 align:middle Cuando canta la cigarra, lo extraño pues decía falta cuarenta días para la helada. 00:06:11.586 --> 00:06:13.236 align:middle Todos los que tenían problemas siempre lo iban a buscar. 00:06:13.266 --> 00:06:13.956 align:middle Escucha ese pájaro, decía. 00:06:13.986 --> 00:06:14.976 align:middle Las cosas que sabía hacer, las hacía. 00:06:19.186 --> 00:06:21.436 align:middle Dirt-dauber, I've got to talk to you about that. 00:06:22.966 --> 00:06:24.856 align:middle You all know what dirt-daubers are here, right? 00:06:28.226 --> 00:06:31.286 align:middle Yeah, mud-dauber, dirt-dauber. 00:06:32.096 --> 00:06:38.256 align:middle They're like little wasps that build those mud flutes under your porch and they put eggs inside 00:06:38.256 --> 00:06:46.366 align:middle and in the South, they make a tea out of that for, to relieve the pain of childbirth. 00:06:47.516 --> 00:06:58.726 align:middle It's a country thing. [INAUDIBLE] I like that. 00:06:59.226 --> 00:06:59.316 align:middle Ok.