WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.830 align:middle line:84% Here's one more poem, and you get 00:00:01.830 --> 00:00:06.194 align:middle line:84% to hear me try to do a terrible imitation of David Byrne. 00:00:06.194 --> 00:00:06.990 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:06.990 --> 00:00:09.060 align:middle line:90% That's in there. 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:13.950 align:middle line:84% It's also the poem-- such a domestic person. 00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:90% We've taken up gardening. 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:21.900 align:middle line:84% And the terrible thing when you start growing tomatoes 00:00:21.900 --> 00:00:23.850 align:middle line:84% and things is that now, suddenly, you 00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:26.220 align:middle line:90% see squirrels as the enemy. 00:00:26.220 --> 00:00:30.090 align:middle line:84% And there's so much folklore involved 00:00:30.090 --> 00:00:33.450 align:middle line:84% in what will keep squirrels away from your tomatoes. 00:00:33.450 --> 00:00:35.160 align:middle line:90% So this lists all of them-- 00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:40.290 align:middle line:84% Irish Spring soap, which is obvious that'll keep it away, 00:00:40.290 --> 00:00:48.360 align:middle line:84% and human hair, another thing, marigolds, and none of them 00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:50.490 align:middle line:90% seem to work. 00:00:50.490 --> 00:00:54.700 align:middle line:84% Called "Talismanic"-- it's the last poem I'll read. 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:57.790 align:middle line:84% "The boy's hair voodoos the tomato stalks. 00:00:57.790 --> 00:01:01.630 align:middle line:84% We've swept it from the kitchen floor after haircuts. 00:01:01.630 --> 00:01:05.440 align:middle line:84% And straw colored, it spirals from the garden soil, 00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:10.480 align:middle line:84% already half-buried, like tablets etched with Linear B, 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:15.340 align:middle line:84% untranslatable among eggshells and soap flakes. 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:19.240 align:middle line:84% I kneel and watch it rain upon the diligent grubs, 00:01:19.240 --> 00:01:23.470 align:middle line:84% beetles, and the zigzag caravan of ants. 00:01:23.470 --> 00:01:26.260 align:middle line:84% The stalks nod with unripe big boys, 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:30.910 align:middle line:84% calypsos, green marbles of cherries and clusters. 00:01:30.910 --> 00:01:34.330 align:middle line:84% Human hair, marigolds, Irish Spring I 00:01:34.330 --> 00:01:39.310 align:middle line:84% flake with a cheese grater, and a talismanic circle charms 00:01:39.310 --> 00:01:42.400 align:middle line:90% against squirrel and raccoon. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:46.300 align:middle line:84% High summer evening, high 90s, and the boys run 00:01:46.300 --> 00:01:48.820 align:middle line:84% tonsured through the sprinkler's spray. 00:01:48.820 --> 00:01:53.890 align:middle line:84% The sounds, as it revolves, a quirky but robotic staccato, 00:01:53.890 --> 00:01:58.790 align:middle line:84% like the voice of David Byrne cackling once in a lifetime. 00:01:58.790 --> 00:02:02.230 align:middle line:84% You may ask yourself, how do I work this? 00:02:02.230 --> 00:02:05.590 align:middle line:84% They will lay waste to the fruits of your labors. 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:08.530 align:middle line:90% Useless are all your spells. 00:02:08.530 --> 00:02:10.900 align:middle line:90% For now, the wind is rising. 00:02:10.900 --> 00:02:13.660 align:middle line:84% A thick, cheap scent over everything-- 00:02:13.660 --> 00:02:18.790 align:middle line:84% scent the color of key lime pie, scent the color of my father, 00:02:18.790 --> 00:02:22.480 align:middle line:84% 20 years dead, and stepping from the shower stall, 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:26.530 align:middle line:84% taking in the steam and deep self-conscious breath, 00:02:26.530 --> 00:02:32.560 align:middle line:84% his own futile talisman against emphysema, angina, Jim Beam. 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:35.170 align:middle line:90% Soap lather beads his face. 00:02:35.170 --> 00:02:38.620 align:middle line:84% You may ask yourself, how did I get here? 00:02:38.620 --> 00:02:43.930 align:middle line:84% He is ash in a canister in the veterans' cemetery in St. Paul. 00:02:43.930 --> 00:02:49.270 align:middle line:84% And his DNA helixes up the pale outline of Luke's spine, 00:02:49.270 --> 00:02:53.050 align:middle line:84% glinting now in the sprinkler's jittery rainbows. 00:02:53.050 --> 00:02:55.760 align:middle line:90% Let the water hold me down. 00:02:55.760 --> 00:02:59.290 align:middle line:84% Back and forth, they pace the sprinkler's cage. 00:02:59.290 --> 00:03:02.710 align:middle line:84% They squeal and turn to me in their delight. 00:03:02.710 --> 00:03:04.720 align:middle line:90% Same as it ever was. 00:03:04.720 --> 00:03:06.890 align:middle line:90% Same as it ever was. 00:03:06.890 --> 00:03:09.610 align:middle line:84% And the breeze pulls the spray toward me 00:03:09.610 --> 00:03:12.580 align:middle line:90% until I am mist as well. 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:15.490 align:middle line:84% Lured by this instant, back to them 00:03:15.490 --> 00:03:18.880 align:middle line:84% when I am ash, though I kneel absurdly 00:03:18.880 --> 00:03:23.200 align:middle line:84% with the cheese grater, knee pads, and a flint head of soap. 00:03:23.200 --> 00:03:25.240 align:middle line:90% Same as it ever was. 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:27.070 align:middle line:90% Same as it ever was. 00:03:27.070 --> 00:03:30.160 align:middle line:84% Sundown, mosquitoes turning, tuning up, 00:03:30.160 --> 00:03:34.840 align:middle line:84% a gilt of fireflies slathering the Adirondack chairs, 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:37.600 align:middle line:84% my knees scrape eggshell, beflowered 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:39.730 align:middle line:90% with dead-headed marigolds. 00:03:39.730 --> 00:03:45.130 align:middle line:84% And the tufts of hair billow up from the dirt to my face." 00:03:45.130 --> 00:03:45.730 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:45.730 --> 00:03:46.330 align:middle line:90% 00:03:46.330 --> 00:03:49.680 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:54.219 align:middle line:90%