WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.530 --> 00:00:05.850 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "The Kiss." 00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:08.850 align:middle line:84% And it's for my youngest son Kevin. 00:00:08.850 --> 00:00:13.356 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.356 --> 00:00:19.520 align:middle line:84% "A glaze of ice glistens in the manure and rutted mud 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:23.900 align:middle line:84% of the plowed-under garden as the brittle crack 00:00:23.900 --> 00:00:27.470 align:middle line:84% and squish of my greased boots leads 00:00:27.470 --> 00:00:32.990 align:middle line:84% me plodding beside my vague reflection this crisp April 00:00:32.990 --> 00:00:38.060 align:middle line:84% morning, as if my image still were in the thawing Earth 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:43.760 align:middle line:84% I planted, and last year's buried spring still 00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:51.500 align:middle line:84% stirred and shined within the slick clay of the chunky soil. 00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:54.740 align:middle line:84% With boot-grooves packed with mud, 00:00:54.740 --> 00:01:01.310 align:middle line:84% my cold cleft toes imagine they can feel the rising moisture. 00:01:01.310 --> 00:01:06.260 align:middle line:84% Stopping by a three-year red delicious tree 00:01:06.260 --> 00:01:10.790 align:middle line:84% to scrape a fresh bud with my fingernail I 00:01:10.790 --> 00:01:15.050 align:middle line:84% see that it is green inside, alive 00:01:15.050 --> 00:01:19.460 align:middle line:84% having survived the winter in my care." 00:01:19.460 --> 00:01:22.190 align:middle line:84% Excuse me, I'm going to interrupt myself because I 00:01:22.190 --> 00:01:23.810 align:middle line:90% should have told you something. 00:01:23.810 --> 00:01:28.460 align:middle line:90% 00:01:28.460 --> 00:01:34.430 align:middle line:84% If the young fruit trees are not wrapped during the winter, 00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:38.480 align:middle line:84% they will be eaten by mice or rabbits. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:43.760 align:middle line:84% And I wrapped my trees with aluminum foil 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:45.890 align:middle line:84% and then I put some tape around the aluminum foil 00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:50.120 align:middle line:84% so I can get a tight around the tree right down to the ground. 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:55.100 align:middle line:84% And I keep that protection on for the winter. 00:01:55.100 --> 00:01:59.480 align:middle line:84% So you need to understand that here. 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:02.060 align:middle line:84% Let me move back just a little bit. 00:02:02.060 --> 00:02:05.240 align:middle line:84% "With boot-grooves packed with mud, 00:02:05.240 --> 00:02:11.240 align:middle line:84% my cold cleft toes imagine they can feel the rising moisture. 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:15.200 align:middle line:84% Stopping by a three-year red delicious tree 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:18.920 align:middle line:84% to scrape a fresh bud with my fingernail, 00:02:18.920 --> 00:02:23.270 align:middle line:84% I see that it is green inside, alive 00:02:23.270 --> 00:02:26.900 align:middle line:84% having survived the winter in my care. 00:02:26.900 --> 00:02:29.930 align:middle line:90% Yes, it is soft and moist. 00:02:29.930 --> 00:02:33.740 align:middle line:84% It has come through under my care, 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:38.210 align:middle line:84% and I remove the wrapping-- aluminum foil and tape-- 00:02:38.210 --> 00:02:40.400 align:middle line:90% around its trunk. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:44.000 align:middle line:84% It saved it from the gnawing mice and voles 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.620 align:middle line:84% who girdle fruit tree barks beneath the snow. 00:02:48.620 --> 00:02:54.410 align:middle line:84% Now on the yellowed grass, the perfect turds of starving deer, 00:02:54.410 --> 00:02:57.920 align:middle line:84% glimmering like planets, circle the tree, 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:03.800 align:middle line:84% and the faint waft of skunk brushes me with a puff of wind. 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:09.140 align:middle line:84% I like it, it quickens my sense at the exquisite edge 00:03:09.140 --> 00:03:13.490 align:middle line:84% where pleasure cloys, where one knows surely what 00:03:13.490 --> 00:03:16.100 align:middle line:90% the human limits are. 00:03:16.100 --> 00:03:21.710 align:middle line:84% I kneel beside another tree as if to dress a child for school, 00:03:21.710 --> 00:03:25.580 align:middle line:84% snipping a dead branch as sharp sun 00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:31.520 align:middle line:84% strikes the creased foil by my knee, catches my dazzled eyes 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:34.310 align:middle line:90% and makes them tear. 00:03:34.310 --> 00:03:38.990 align:middle line:84% A stranger here might think I truly wept. 00:03:38.990 --> 00:03:43.340 align:middle line:84% Spring blood sings in my veins even 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:49.160 align:middle line:84% as it did some 30 years ago when I planted my first apple tree. 00:03:49.160 --> 00:03:54.920 align:middle line:84% No lessening of pleasure dulls the sun's feel on my arms, 00:03:54.920 --> 00:03:58.640 align:middle line:84% or warming chill, or the female curves 00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:02.810 align:middle line:84% I see along the hill that fruit trees make 00:04:02.810 --> 00:04:08.090 align:middle line:84% when my eyes follow slowly, caressing every slope, 00:04:08.090 --> 00:04:10.400 align:middle line:90% then moving on. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:14.900 align:middle line:84% I am gathering my life in now with a breath. 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:20.120 align:middle line:84% I know what thoughts I must hold back to let my careful body 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:26.360 align:middle line:84% thrive as bone by bone it was designed to do. 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:30.410 align:middle line:84% A gust of wind comes off the upper slope. 00:04:30.410 --> 00:04:34.190 align:middle line:84% Having followed me, my youngest son crying, 00:04:34.190 --> 00:04:39.140 align:middle line:84% 'watch me dad,' runs along the ridge much faster than I 00:04:39.140 --> 00:04:44.810 align:middle line:84% thought he could, launching his huge black birthday kite. 00:04:44.810 --> 00:04:49.040 align:middle line:84% Catching the wind, the kite leaps for the sky, 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:54.020 align:middle line:84% steadies itself as the string goes taut. 00:04:54.020 --> 00:04:59.240 align:middle line:84% It glides above me, swoops, floating its shadow 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:02.210 align:middle line:84% and my squinting eyes, that pruning 00:05:02.210 --> 00:05:07.940 align:middle line:84% snipers still in hand, I shield from shocking light. 00:05:07.940 --> 00:05:10.550 align:middle line:90% Designed like a great bat-- 00:05:10.550 --> 00:05:15.500 align:middle line:84% hooked wings and pointed ears and long white fangs 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:17.390 align:middle line:90% grinning like Dracula-- 00:05:17.390 --> 00:05:24.500 align:middle line:84% it swoops again, eclipsing the sun, hovers, dives at me. 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:29.900 align:middle line:84% I see the mock blood oozing at its mouth and random dribbles 00:05:29.900 --> 00:05:36.710 align:middle line:84% brightening its belly just as it crashes in the apple tree. 00:05:36.710 --> 00:05:40.340 align:middle line:84% I take more shining foil from the tree 00:05:40.340 --> 00:05:44.120 align:middle line:84% and roll it into two enormous teeth, 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:48.290 align:middle line:84% set them in my mouth like fangs, and chase 00:05:48.290 --> 00:05:53.930 align:middle line:84% my son across the field, running faster than I thought I could 00:05:53.930 --> 00:05:59.750 align:middle line:84% until my ribs smolder in my chest and my clay hooves ache. 00:05:59.750 --> 00:06:03.590 align:middle line:84% He screams as if the demons of his sleep, 00:06:03.590 --> 00:06:06.500 align:middle line:84% returning from the frozen underground, 00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:08.840 align:middle line:90% were actually upon him-- 00:06:08.840 --> 00:06:14.630 align:middle line:84% as I catch him, grapple him down, sink my gleaming teeth 00:06:14.630 --> 00:06:18.080 align:middle line:84% into his pulsing throat and suck, 00:06:18.080 --> 00:06:21.350 align:middle line:84% suck deeper than I have ever sucked, 00:06:21.350 --> 00:06:26.450 align:middle line:84% tasting his life sweeter than any apple I have known." 00:06:26.450 --> 00:06:31.720 align:middle line:90% 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:33.070 align:middle line:90% It's just make believe. 00:06:33.070 --> 00:06:35.932 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:06:35.932 --> 00:06:39.760 align:middle line:90% 00:06:39.760 --> 00:06:42.030 align:middle line:90% Just like all poems.