WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.690 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.690 --> 00:00:07.720 align:middle line:84%
This is a poem called
Routes, R-O-U-T-E-S.

00:00:07.720 --> 00:00:09.460 align:middle line:84%
Not too long ago
I was back home,

00:00:09.460 --> 00:00:13.970 align:middle line:84%
home where I was
raised in Pennsylvania.

00:00:13.970 --> 00:00:15.920 align:middle line:84%
And I hadn't been
back for years.

00:00:15.920 --> 00:00:20.040 align:middle line:90%


00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:22.290 align:middle line:84%
And I don't think that's
an uncommon experience

00:00:22.290 --> 00:00:24.300 align:middle line:84%
of going back to a place
where you've grown up

00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:26.610 align:middle line:84%
and finding the sort of
ambiguity of feelings

00:00:26.610 --> 00:00:31.860 align:middle line:84%
that that place seems to
arouse in which you're always

00:00:31.860 --> 00:00:33.793 align:middle line:84%
sort of finding yourself
around the corner

00:00:33.793 --> 00:00:35.085 align:middle line:90%
or at least a part of yourself.

00:00:35.085 --> 00:00:37.850 align:middle line:90%


00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:39.280 align:middle line:84%
It's in two parts
and I'll simply

00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:41.020 align:middle line:90%
pause between them, Routes.

00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:45.880 align:middle line:90%


00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:52.210 align:middle line:84%
Sun drops below the elms,
moon comes along and freezes

00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:53.350 align:middle line:90%
the wheels of the street.

00:00:53.350 --> 00:00:56.240 align:middle line:90%


00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.740 align:middle line:84%
In her room, my mother shakes
out her rod of dark colors

00:01:00.740 --> 00:01:01.970 align:middle line:90%
and knits the first step.

00:01:01.970 --> 00:01:04.980 align:middle line:90%


00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:09.200 align:middle line:84%
My window faces
the funeral home.

00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:13.610 align:middle line:84%
When the exhaust fan starts
to hum, something is flying,

00:01:13.610 --> 00:01:15.965 align:middle line:84%
something is leaving at
the level of the trees.

00:01:15.965 --> 00:01:20.630 align:middle line:90%


00:01:20.630 --> 00:01:25.730 align:middle line:84%
I enter a street where
the sun is falling.

00:01:25.730 --> 00:01:27.710 align:middle line:84%
I look over my
shoulder and follow

00:01:27.710 --> 00:01:31.490 align:middle line:90%
a thread that was my coat.

00:01:31.490 --> 00:01:38.410 align:middle line:84%
At its end is a vacant room
and a little bench of sleep. .

00:01:38.410 --> 00:01:41.680 align:middle line:90%
I sit down quietly.

00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:44.380 align:middle line:84%
A few others arrive
their eyelashes

00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:47.030 align:middle line:90%
shining like crystals.

00:01:47.030 --> 00:01:50.140 align:middle line:84%
One coughs in a
cloud of incense, one

00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:54.390 align:middle line:90%
closes his silver telescope.

00:01:54.390 --> 00:01:58.230 align:middle line:84%
The lost town circles
overhead in the dark,

00:01:58.230 --> 00:02:01.600 align:middle line:84%
the houses hang
out their lanterns.

00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:06.390 align:middle line:84%
On a blue bike I race
the shadows of the trees.

00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:10.000 align:middle line:90%