WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.470 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.470 --> 00:00:04.200 align:middle line:84% And then quite a long time after I 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:06.390 align:middle line:84% had written that poem, I found myself 00:00:06.390 --> 00:00:08.610 align:middle line:84% returning to the subject, which is 00:00:08.610 --> 00:00:10.530 align:middle line:84% one of the surprising things I guess 00:00:10.530 --> 00:00:16.020 align:middle line:84% that happens because here's sort of the rest of the story. 00:00:16.020 --> 00:00:21.150 align:middle line:84% But I have to I think gloss the aquacade which 00:00:21.150 --> 00:00:22.830 align:middle line:84% occurs in this poem and goes back 00:00:22.830 --> 00:00:26.670 align:middle line:84% to the late 40s when they're a showman known as Billy Rose. 00:00:26.670 --> 00:00:28.530 align:middle line:84% Maybe you've heard of Billy Rose. 00:00:28.530 --> 00:00:33.810 align:middle line:84% Organize these noble maidens into synchronized swimming 00:00:33.810 --> 00:00:37.950 align:middle line:84% performances, and they were billed as Billy Rose's aquacade 00:00:37.950 --> 00:00:42.023 align:middle line:84% and they went their watery way from New York to Chicago, 00:00:42.023 --> 00:00:43.440 align:middle line:84% et cetera, et cetera and performed 00:00:43.440 --> 00:00:46.650 align:middle line:90% the sort of water ballet. 00:00:46.650 --> 00:00:49.290 align:middle line:84% I guess that tells you everything you need to know. 00:00:49.290 --> 00:00:51.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:54.810 align:middle line:84% This is sort of a women's lib poem I think, 00:00:54.810 --> 00:00:56.250 align:middle line:90% I like to think it is. 00:00:56.250 --> 00:00:57.435 align:middle line:90% It's called life's work. 00:00:57.435 --> 00:00:59.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:59.990 --> 00:01:04.730 align:middle line:84% Mother, my good girl I remember this old story. 00:01:04.730 --> 00:01:08.450 align:middle line:84% You fresh out of the conservatory at 18 00:01:08.450 --> 00:01:13.790 align:middle line:84% a bar specialist in a starched shirt waist begging permission 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:17.900 align:middle line:84% to go on tour with the nimble violinist you were never 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:19.280 align:middle line:90% to accompany. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:24.380 align:middle line:84% And he flinging his music down, the rosin from his bow 00:01:24.380 --> 00:01:29.690 align:middle line:84% flaking line by line like grace notes on the treble clef. 00:01:29.690 --> 00:01:33.410 align:middle line:84% And my grandfather, that estimable man 00:01:33.410 --> 00:01:38.780 align:middle line:84% I never met scrubbing your mouth with a handkerchief saying 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:42.410 align:middle line:84% no daughter of mine tearing loose the gold 00:01:42.410 --> 00:01:46.400 align:middle line:84% locket you wore with no one's picture in it, 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:50.150 align:middle line:84% and the whole German house on 15th Street 00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:53.720 align:middle line:90% at righteous white heat. 00:01:53.720 --> 00:01:56.960 align:middle line:90% At 18 I chose to be a swimmer. 00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:01.490 align:middle line:84% My long hair dripped through dinner onto the China plate, 00:02:01.490 --> 00:02:05.780 align:middle line:84% my fingers wrinkled like son sweet yellow raisins 00:02:05.780 --> 00:02:08.389 align:middle line:90% from the afternoon workout. 00:02:08.389 --> 00:02:12.980 align:middle line:84% My mouth chewed, but I was doing laps. 00:02:12.980 --> 00:02:15.740 align:middle line:84% I entered the water like a knife. 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:19.970 align:middle line:84% I was all muscle and seven doors a frog 00:02:19.970 --> 00:02:25.670 align:middle line:84% on the turning board, king of the eels and the eels wife. 00:02:25.670 --> 00:02:31.070 align:middle line:84% I swallowed and prayed to be allowed to join the aquacade. 00:02:31.070 --> 00:02:35.450 align:middle line:84% And my perfect daddy who carried you off to elope 00:02:35.450 --> 00:02:39.170 align:middle line:84% after the fingerboard snapped and the violinist 00:02:39.170 --> 00:02:40.940 align:middle line:90% lost his case. 00:02:40.940 --> 00:02:44.510 align:middle line:84% My daddy wearing gravy on his face 00:02:44.510 --> 00:02:48.140 align:middle line:84% swore on the carrots and the boiled beef 00:02:48.140 --> 00:02:53.900 align:middle line:84% that I would come to nothing, that I would come to grief. 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:57.860 align:middle line:84% Well, the firm old fathers are dead 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:00.490 align:middle line:90% and I didn't come to grief. 00:03:00.490 --> 00:03:05.780 align:middle line:84% I came to words instead to tell the little tale that's left. 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:09.770 align:middle line:84% The mid nights of my childhood still go on. 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:13.820 align:middle line:84% The stairs speak again under your foot. 00:03:13.820 --> 00:03:18.980 align:middle line:84% The heavy parlor door folds shut and Au clair de la 00:03:18.980 --> 00:03:22.640 align:middle line:84% lune puckers from the obedient keys 00:03:22.640 --> 00:03:27.140 align:middle line:84% plain as a schoolroom clock ticking. 00:03:27.140 --> 00:03:32.330 align:middle line:84% And what I hear more clearly than WC's love song 00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:38.680 align:middle line:84% is the dry after sound of your long nails clicking. 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:40.000 align:middle line:90%