WEBVTT NOTE Created by CaptionSync from Automatic Sync Technologies www.automaticsync.com 00:00:02.656 --> 00:00:05.636 align:middle The next one is a bit longer than the ones I have been reading. 00:00:06.636 --> 00:00:09.306 align:middle It's a poem that I wrote for my grandmother. 00:00:09.856 --> 00:00:12.236 align:middle My grandmother never used to talk English. 00:00:12.236 --> 00:00:14.016 align:middle She knew just a few words only. 00:00:14.016 --> 00:00:16.756 align:middle She spoke nearly all the time in Spanish. 00:00:17.816 --> 00:00:22.306 align:middle She used to crochet a great deal and she wouldn't crochet just simple things, 00:00:22.306 --> 00:00:26.396 align:middle but there'd be these houses and horses and flowers. 00:00:26.726 --> 00:00:30.626 align:middle She'd take these little squares and fit them all together and make this immense pattern. 00:00:31.286 --> 00:00:32.486 align:middle Beautiful thing she'd make. 00:00:33.486 --> 00:00:40.136 align:middle When she died, it seemed as though the center seemed to fall out of one side of my family. 00:00:41.186 --> 00:00:44.066 align:middle This is a poem for her, Mama Toña. 00:00:44.696 --> 00:00:49.906 align:middle The entry is one kiss of ours for 10 of yours. 00:00:50.456 --> 00:00:56.886 align:middle Noisily you speak the words I comprehend and the words they laugh at when I speak them. 00:00:57.796 --> 00:01:02.426 align:middle The words that flowed hardest, like old butter, like lumps. 00:01:03.446 --> 00:01:08.336 align:middle You sit and rocked gently hands moving fast as rain. 00:01:08.826 --> 00:01:14.366 align:middle You sit and hook the lines that mesh into white squares, joining the squares slowly, 00:01:14.766 --> 00:01:17.926 align:middle parts of petals becoming one translucent flower. 00:01:19.186 --> 00:01:20.686 align:middle These are your words. 00:01:21.416 --> 00:01:25.416 align:middle They bloom, they awe me as the others do not. 00:01:26.306 --> 00:01:29.816 align:middle You can make horses, trees, even houses 00:01:30.156 --> 00:01:34.436 align:middle as you make this brown house, the one the rose vines cover. 00:01:34.926 --> 00:01:38.096 align:middle Rose against rust, wooden gate scraping. 00:01:39.346 --> 00:01:42.066 align:middle You hold me as though I count. 00:01:42.786 --> 00:01:47.586 align:middle You kiss me noisily and yet you do not know me. 00:01:49.136 --> 00:01:53.756 align:middle Now you are patting dough, the warm room plop. 00:01:54.136 --> 00:01:59.346 align:middle The dough goes down, round his phases, flat as fear. 00:01:59.636 --> 00:02:03.536 align:middle The money that ripples if I spend it on that wood board. 00:02:04.216 --> 00:02:11.186 align:middle The touch you make, the touch you use makes everything come up smoothly, even the dough. 00:02:11.666 --> 00:02:14.636 align:middle The white feather flower makes signets on your hands. 00:02:14.976 --> 00:02:17.936 align:middle You pat everything, you smooth it noisily. 00:02:18.286 --> 00:02:20.196 align:middle The hands patting are words. 00:02:20.836 --> 00:02:23.626 align:middle I am mute, for they laugh at me. 00:02:24.206 --> 00:02:27.406 align:middle We can talk and we do not speak. 00:02:28.656 --> 00:02:32.696 align:middle You are the only one the brothers' quarrel cease for. 00:02:33.116 --> 00:02:37.256 align:middle You say all their names until you come to the name that holds that fist back. 00:02:38.076 --> 00:02:44.746 align:middle The blood of your sons is white, it's hot, flashes every time I come. 00:02:44.946 --> 00:02:48.246 align:middle You have hands like my mother, fleshy and warm. 00:02:48.526 --> 00:02:50.096 align:middle You are not like some here. 00:02:50.436 --> 00:02:52.186 align:middle The pictures are your words. 00:02:52.606 --> 00:02:53.586 align:middle They are like you. 00:02:53.916 --> 00:02:57.086 align:middle Delicate, small boned, [inaudible] light. 00:02:57.556 --> 00:03:02.106 align:middle They blow in all the window frames, masking dust, masking cracks. 00:03:02.716 --> 00:03:04.366 align:middle They are your laughter. 00:03:04.836 --> 00:03:09.376 align:middle When we kiss you, it is the signal of leave-taking. 00:03:10.666 --> 00:03:16.306 align:middle The day you die, I come barreling from Tucson, the road I do not come 00:03:16.306 --> 00:03:18.776 align:middle up enough to catch at your death. 00:03:19.566 --> 00:03:22.046 align:middle But I am nothing to wait for. 00:03:22.346 --> 00:03:25.526 align:middle I am only eyes, a wordless one. 00:03:25.956 --> 00:03:30.806 align:middle I do not come in time. 00:03:31.016 --> 00:03:33.676 align:middle Death caused this [inaudible] in the middle. 00:03:34.746 --> 00:03:43.616 align:middle It is not the flower, not the horse, it is the house unraveling stitch by stitch. 00:03:44.506 --> 00:03:48.406 align:middle The dough, the small, tight map, is spreading. 00:03:49.236 --> 00:03:51.006 align:middle Islands break off. 00:03:52.036 --> 00:03:53.996 align:middle Death rips you out. 00:03:54.716 --> 00:03:58.856 align:middle The one, the rest depends on.