WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 align:middle line:84%
And this is a prose
poem dedicated

00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:06.750 align:middle line:90%
to Steve's sister-in-law, Carol.

00:00:06.750 --> 00:00:10.260 align:middle line:84%
That was written 14
years after that one.

00:00:10.260 --> 00:00:13.560 align:middle line:84%
"It was a minor argument
with my future sister-in-law

00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:15.450 align:middle line:90%
on the way to the wedding.

00:00:15.450 --> 00:00:19.110 align:middle line:84%
When we arrived for the
ceremony, I apologized.

00:00:19.110 --> 00:00:22.260 align:middle line:84%
And the more specifically I
explained where I'd been wrong,

00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:24.660 align:middle line:84%
the more intransigent
she became,

00:00:24.660 --> 00:00:29.370 align:middle line:84%
leaning against the altar,
refusing my meager mea culpa.

00:00:29.370 --> 00:00:34.870 align:middle line:84%
The whole incident got
smaller and never went away.

00:00:34.870 --> 00:00:37.300 align:middle line:90%
She died some months later.

00:00:37.300 --> 00:00:40.770 align:middle line:84%
Now when I rehearse my
explanations to the dead,

00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:42.840 align:middle line:90%
hers come first.

00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:45.210 align:middle line:84%
We are all dressed
up at the wedding.

00:00:45.210 --> 00:00:47.760 align:middle line:84%
We sit across from each
other, and raise our hands,

00:00:47.760 --> 00:00:52.020 align:middle line:84%
as if in surrender, or as
if to play a child's game,

00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:55.650 align:middle line:84%
knowing that the winner wins
and the loser, well, the loser

00:00:55.650 --> 00:00:58.680 align:middle line:90%
always wants to play again.

00:00:58.680 --> 00:01:02.550 align:middle line:84%
I am at my most
reasonable, most contrite,

00:01:02.550 --> 00:01:06.950 align:middle line:84%
and still I can't
stop explaining."

00:01:06.950 --> 00:01:11.000 align:middle line:90%