WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.840 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:03.090 align:middle line:84%
Every once in a while, I get
an idea of writing things

00:00:03.090 --> 00:00:06.866 align:middle line:90%
because I'm in a class--

00:00:06.866 --> 00:00:09.256 align:middle line:90%
somebody has something to do.

00:00:09.256 --> 00:00:11.360 align:middle line:84%
And once The Chelsea
Review, which

00:00:11.360 --> 00:00:16.240 align:middle line:84%
is a funny magazine that
comes out about once a year--

00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:19.150 align:middle line:84%
They decided that they were
going to have an issue devoted

00:00:19.150 --> 00:00:21.315 align:middle line:90%
to technological poetry.

00:00:21.315 --> 00:00:23.830 align:middle line:90%


00:00:23.830 --> 00:00:24.910 align:middle line:90%
Very strange to me.

00:00:24.910 --> 00:00:30.220 align:middle line:84%
So I said I would try to
write a technological poem.

00:00:30.220 --> 00:00:33.270 align:middle line:84%
And I wrote this poem which is
called "Screw, a Technical Love

00:00:33.270 --> 00:00:34.244 align:middle line:90%
Poem."

00:00:34.244 --> 00:00:37.640 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:38.140 align:middle line:90%


00:00:38.140 --> 00:00:41.450 align:middle line:84%
And I begin with a definition
for the word screwed

00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:46.540 align:middle line:84%
from Webster's New World
Dictionary, page 1,310, World

00:00:46.540 --> 00:00:50.110 align:middle line:84%
Publishing Company,
Cleveland, 1954.

00:00:50.110 --> 00:00:52.960 align:middle line:90%
Noun, Middle English, screwe.

00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.020 align:middle line:84%
Old French, escroue, hole
in which a screw turns.

00:00:56.020 --> 00:01:02.110 align:middle line:84%
Latin, scrofa, sow,
influenced by scrobis, vulva.

00:01:02.110 --> 00:01:06.040 align:middle line:84%
One, a mechanical device used
for fastening things together,

00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:08.200 align:middle line:84%
consisting of a nail-like
cylinder of metal

00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:11.470 align:middle line:84%
grooved in an advancing
spiral and usually having

00:01:11.470 --> 00:01:12.910 align:middle line:90%
a slotted head.

00:01:12.910 --> 00:01:17.500 align:middle line:84%
It penetrates only by being
turned, male or external--

00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:19.480 align:middle line:90%
screw.

00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:23.692 align:middle line:84%
Two, anything like
such a device.

00:01:23.692 --> 00:01:26.600 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:30.320 align:middle line:84%
Three, a hollow cylinder
equipped with a spiral groove

00:01:30.320 --> 00:01:33.680 align:middle line:84%
on an inner surface into
which the male screw fits,

00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:35.495 align:middle line:90%
female or internal screw.

00:01:35.495 --> 00:01:38.430 align:middle line:90%


00:01:38.430 --> 00:01:41.560 align:middle line:90%
And this is my poem.

00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:44.990 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes I think of your father
in his neat gangster shoes

00:01:44.990 --> 00:01:48.670 align:middle line:84%
sewing into your mother your
eyes, then the strange teeth

00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:51.160 align:middle line:90%
touching blood on her ankle.

00:01:51.160 --> 00:01:54.040 align:middle line:84%
Turning yourself
inside her made you

00:01:54.040 --> 00:01:56.440 align:middle line:84%
as graceful as a
stillson wrench, which

00:01:56.440 --> 00:02:00.730 align:middle line:84%
can be twirled into narrow
mouths or open ones.

00:02:00.730 --> 00:02:03.100 align:middle line:84%
The joints of selenium
make you still

00:02:03.100 --> 00:02:07.530 align:middle line:84%
photograph me or any other
woman who comes close.

00:02:07.530 --> 00:02:10.539 align:middle line:90%
34, I say, is the atomic number.

00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:13.330 align:middle line:84%
When you find 34
women with 34 grams

00:02:13.330 --> 00:02:16.270 align:middle line:84%
of selenium poured
into 34 places--

00:02:16.270 --> 00:02:18.370 align:middle line:84%
the knees, the
fingers, the ear holes,

00:02:18.370 --> 00:02:21.710 align:middle line:84%
those delicate
junctures of the pelvis.

00:02:21.710 --> 00:02:24.460 align:middle line:84%
Oh coming out of me is
yards of piano wire.

00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:27.610 align:middle line:84%
Unwind it, it should have been
wound around the machine screw

00:02:27.610 --> 00:02:30.430 align:middle line:84%
with a square head or the
machine screw with a round

00:02:30.430 --> 00:02:33.760 align:middle line:84%
head, or a wood screw, or a
lag screw, or a set screw.

00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:37.280 align:middle line:84%
The hardware cannot
compete with the software.

00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:37.780 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:40.630 align:middle line:84%
My brain, my throat,
my anxious wrist.

00:02:40.630 --> 00:02:44.740 align:middle line:84%
On the female side, I must
wait for the proper motion.

00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:46.360 align:middle line:90%
It is internal.

00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:49.210 align:middle line:84%
But impatience makes me want
to push all the buttons,

00:02:49.210 --> 00:02:51.220 align:middle line:84%
flip all the
switches, turn you on.

00:02:51.220 --> 00:02:55.270 align:middle line:84%
Yes, I technically want you and
technically I can't have you.

00:02:55.270 --> 00:02:57.790 align:middle line:84%
How did life get so
full of technicalities

00:02:57.790 --> 00:03:00.350 align:middle line:84%
when I only wanted to
touch you but found

00:03:00.350 --> 00:03:02.890 align:middle line:84%
I didn't know enough
formulas, did not have

00:03:02.890 --> 00:03:05.260 align:middle line:90%
a low enough atomic number.

00:03:05.260 --> 00:03:07.640 align:middle line:84%
Could not put out
my hand and say,

00:03:07.640 --> 00:03:11.230 align:middle line:84%
I love you, because it's
not a technical term.

00:03:11.230 --> 00:03:14.580 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:18.000 align:middle line:90%