WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:08.050 align:middle line:84%
Let me just read two more poems;
one's a strange love poem.

00:00:08.050 --> 00:00:11.780 align:middle line:84%
Another, I want to read two
more love poems, really.

00:00:11.780 --> 00:00:17.680 align:middle line:84%
A poem memory to a woman, but
I never did very well by--

00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:21.829 align:middle line:90%


00:00:21.829 --> 00:00:23.970 align:middle line:90%
I didn't do very well by me.

00:00:23.970 --> 00:00:27.060 align:middle line:90%


00:00:27.060 --> 00:00:31.560 align:middle line:90%
It's called "First Love 1945".

00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:34.530 align:middle line:84%
And it's just a remembrance
of what first love was like.

00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:41.800 align:middle line:90%


00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:48.430 align:middle line:84%
March, and the
snows have turned,

00:00:48.430 --> 00:00:51.640 align:middle line:90%
perhaps the war is over.

00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:56.560 align:middle line:84%
The gray crust gives under
their weight, and small rivers

00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.200 align:middle line:90%
sigh in the streets.

00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:02.890 align:middle line:84%
Coming home from the
dance, where no one danced,

00:01:02.890 --> 00:01:07.450 align:middle line:90%
he's in love with Dolly Basil.

00:01:07.450 --> 00:01:13.030 align:middle line:84%
Holding her hand
does nothing for it.

00:01:13.030 --> 00:01:16.180 align:middle line:84%
Breathing beside her,
the moon drenched air

00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:21.000 align:middle line:84%
letting the silence speak of
the slow weight in his belly,

00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.460 align:middle line:90%
it does nothing for it.

00:01:24.460 --> 00:01:29.050 align:middle line:84%
Against the chain link fence
going for throat, and ears,

00:01:29.050 --> 00:01:32.395 align:middle line:84%
breast, and crotch,
helps a little.

00:01:32.395 --> 00:01:35.452 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:35.452 --> 00:01:38.260 align:middle line:90%


00:01:38.260 --> 00:01:44.500 align:middle line:84%
Hours later, she loses her
hanky under the viaduct--

00:01:44.500 --> 00:01:46.660 align:middle line:90%
this is love.

00:01:46.660 --> 00:01:51.880 align:middle line:84%
His shoes darkened like
small struck animals.

00:01:51.880 --> 00:01:58.990 align:middle line:84%
The rails above shudder and
gasp under frozen wheels.

00:01:58.990 --> 00:02:05.080 align:middle line:84%
A light oil runs on his back,
runs on her lips, and cheeks,

00:02:05.080 --> 00:02:09.220 align:middle line:84%
runs on everything;
on bitten ears that

00:02:09.220 --> 00:02:16.720 align:middle line:84%
hear too much, on tongues
of machines that never stop,

00:02:16.720 --> 00:02:22.690 align:middle line:84%
on one eye of the star that
winks them to their beds.

00:02:22.690 --> 00:02:27.005 align:middle line:90%


00:02:27.005 --> 00:02:27.755 align:middle line:90%
Forgive me, Dolly.

00:02:27.755 --> 00:02:31.670 align:middle line:90%


00:02:31.670 --> 00:02:35.210 align:middle line:84%
As I once said, she
deserved better; but so

00:02:35.210 --> 00:02:43.160 align:middle line:84%
did I. We just had to
settle for each other.

00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:46.080 align:middle line:90%


00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.030 align:middle line:90%
You're better than nothing.