[APPLAUSE]
So wait a minute.
This is-- yeah, I think that's-- can you guys-- yeah,
that's good.
Well, that was a really lovely introduction.
Thank you.
But I just want you guys to note, no stilettos--
[LAUGHTER]
--cowboy boots.
So except for that, that was really--
also, I have bookmarks for Ordinary Genius.
So I'll just leave them on the table over there.
They're free, so if anybody wants to grab one afterwards.
All right, I've got my iPhone to keep track of the time here.
All right, so I'm going to do a handful of poems.
And I'm going to start with a sonnet from a previous book.
So this is called "So What?"
"Guess what.
If love is only chemistry, phenylethylene,
that molecule that dizzies up the brain's back room,
smoky with hot bebop, it won't be long
until a single worker is mopping up the scuffed and littered
floor, whistling tunelessly, each endorphin cooling
like a snuffed glass candle, the air stale with memory.
'So what,' you say.
Outside, a shadow lifts a trumpet from its case,
lifts it like an ingot and scatters a few virtuosic riffs
toward the locked down stores.
You've quit believing that there's more.
But you're still stirred enough to stop and wait,
listening hard."