WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.630 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.630 --> 00:00:03.450 align:middle line:84%
This is a poem also
about my father now.

00:00:03.450 --> 00:00:08.130 align:middle line:90%
He was a-- he was a fine father.

00:00:08.130 --> 00:00:11.546 align:middle line:84%
The only thing he wasn't
good at was husbanding.

00:00:11.546 --> 00:00:13.860 align:middle line:90%
Do you know people like that?

00:00:13.860 --> 00:00:18.850 align:middle line:84%
And I imagine that he
gave it all he had,

00:00:18.850 --> 00:00:20.940 align:middle line:90%
but he just wasn't good at it.

00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:24.090 align:middle line:84%
And I recently read
some things that he

00:00:24.090 --> 00:00:26.070 align:middle line:84%
had written to someone
else and I discovered

00:00:26.070 --> 00:00:31.680 align:middle line:84%
that he was worse than I thought
he was, which really got to me

00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:35.650 align:middle line:84%
and so I had to get
over that trauma.

00:00:35.650 --> 00:00:39.653 align:middle line:84%
And I wrote a poem, this is
called "Forgiving My Father."

00:00:39.653 --> 00:00:41.070 align:middle line:84%
My husband read
this and said, you

00:00:41.070 --> 00:00:43.230 align:middle line:90%
have not forgiven your father.

00:00:43.230 --> 00:00:44.805 align:middle line:84%
And I did say,
well I have tried.

00:00:44.805 --> 00:00:47.430 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:47.430 --> 00:00:50.430 align:middle line:90%
Forgiving my father.

00:00:50.430 --> 00:00:57.300 align:middle line:84%
It is Friday, we have come
to the paying of the bills.

00:00:57.300 --> 00:00:59.250 align:middle line:84%
All week you have
stood in my dreams

00:00:59.250 --> 00:01:01.260 align:middle line:84%
like a ghost asking
for more time,

00:01:01.260 --> 00:01:04.650 align:middle line:84%
but today is payday,
payday old man.

00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:08.430 align:middle line:84%
My mother's hand opens
in her early grave

00:01:08.430 --> 00:01:12.420 align:middle line:84%
and I hold it out,
like a good daughter.

00:01:12.420 --> 00:01:15.870 align:middle line:84%
There is no more
time for you, there

00:01:15.870 --> 00:01:21.120 align:middle line:84%
will never be time enough daddy,
daddy old lecher old liar.

00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:23.220 align:middle line:84%
I wish you were rich,
so I could take it all

00:01:23.220 --> 00:01:25.350 align:middle line:84%
and give the lady
what she was due.

00:01:25.350 --> 00:01:28.230 align:middle line:84%
But you were the son
of a needy father,

00:01:28.230 --> 00:01:31.170 align:middle line:90%
the father of a needy son.

00:01:31.170 --> 00:01:35.220 align:middle line:84%
You gave her all that you
had, which was nothing.

00:01:35.220 --> 00:01:39.420 align:middle line:84%
You have already
given her all you had.

00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:43.350 align:middle line:84%
You are the pocket that was
going to open and come up empty

00:01:43.350 --> 00:01:45.000 align:middle line:90%
any Friday.

00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.720 align:middle line:84%
You were each other's
bad bargain not mine.

00:01:48.720 --> 00:01:53.700 align:middle line:84%
Daddy, old pauper, old
prisoner, old dead man,

00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:55.620 align:middle line:90%
what am I doing here?

00:01:55.620 --> 00:01:57.180 align:middle line:90%
Collecting.

00:01:57.180 --> 00:02:01.650 align:middle line:84%
You lie, side by side
in debtor's boxes

00:02:01.650 --> 00:02:07.470 align:middle line:84%
and no accounting
will open them up.

00:02:07.470 --> 00:02:10.820 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:13.303 align:middle line:90%