WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.760 align:middle line:84%
This is-- here's a-- if you
ever built a house, this--

00:00:08.760 --> 00:00:11.220 align:middle line:84%
the child is abandoned at
the beginning of the book

00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:13.000 align:middle line:84%
and it's a circle
that I try to complete

00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:14.400 align:middle line:90%
at the end of the book.

00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:17.640 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to read
you a poem where

00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:20.975 align:middle line:84%
Martin, the main character
of the book, has a baby,

00:00:20.975 --> 00:00:22.500 align:middle line:90%
or his wife has a baby.

00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:23.625 align:middle line:90%
And here's the way it goes.

00:00:23.625 --> 00:00:28.460 align:middle line:90%


00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:35.970 align:middle line:84%
They build a house
for themselves

00:00:35.970 --> 00:00:36.970 align:middle line:90%
and here's what happens.

00:00:36.970 --> 00:00:45.220 align:middle line:90%


00:00:45.220 --> 00:00:49.200 align:middle line:84%
This is after he moves
in with Gabriella.

00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:54.090 align:middle line:84%
"We bought a small house along
the river in south Side Barrio.

00:00:54.090 --> 00:00:57.150 align:middle line:84%
A shack out of pried boards
from the door to get in.

00:00:57.150 --> 00:00:59.130 align:middle line:84%
Half acre of land
in the back, heaped

00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:01.560 align:middle line:84%
with decades of
scrap, rusted wire

00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:03.690 align:middle line:84%
fence, and creosote
railroad tires,

00:01:03.690 --> 00:01:05.670 align:middle line:84%
tumbleweeds, mountain
of decay, and harvest

00:01:05.670 --> 00:01:10.500 align:middle line:84%
never picked weaving itself
slowly into the dirt again.

00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:14.100 align:middle line:84%
I gutted the plaster frame
house, nailed, puttied, roofed,

00:01:14.100 --> 00:01:18.540 align:middle line:84%
plumbed, poured cement, sheet
rock, tile, carpeted, tore out,

00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:22.380 align:middle line:84%
reset, piled, burned, cleaned,
cemented, installed, washed,

00:01:22.380 --> 00:01:24.960 align:middle line:84%
and painted, trimmed, pruned,
shoveled, raked, sawed,

00:01:24.960 --> 00:01:28.560 align:middle line:84%
hammered, measured, stuccoed,
until calloused handed,

00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:32.640 align:middle line:84%
muscle firmed, sleek hard
bodied, our small house rose

00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:36.270 align:middle line:84%
from a charred,
faded grave marker,

00:01:36.270 --> 00:01:38.670 align:middle line:84%
a weather rotted
roost for junkies,

00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:43.290 align:middle line:84%
and vagrants, wind,
rain, and sun splintered

00:01:43.290 --> 00:01:46.830 align:middle line:90%
jagged stories of storms on.

00:01:46.830 --> 00:01:51.360 align:middle line:84%
I corrected, rewrote
upon this plaster wood

00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:57.200 align:middle line:84%
tablet, our own version of
love, family, and power."