WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.222 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.222 --> 00:00:01.680 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to read
the poem that was

00:00:01.680 --> 00:00:02.972 align:middle line:90%
printed on the little brochure.

00:00:02.972 --> 00:00:05.448 align:middle line:90%


00:00:05.448 --> 00:00:07.740 align:middle line:84%
Actually, this poem and the
next poem I'm going to read

00:00:07.740 --> 00:00:08.940 align:middle line:90%
are companion poems.

00:00:08.940 --> 00:00:10.840 align:middle line:84%
They were written a
couple of years apart.

00:00:10.840 --> 00:00:15.897 align:middle line:84%
But I think they're basically
dealing with drowned things,

00:00:15.897 --> 00:00:16.605 align:middle line:90%
drowned children.

00:00:16.605 --> 00:00:20.715 align:middle line:90%


00:00:20.715 --> 00:00:23.090 align:middle line:84%
The way you discover something
after a book is published,

00:00:23.090 --> 00:00:25.550 align:middle line:84%
I've noticed that a lot
of the poems I wrote

00:00:25.550 --> 00:00:29.720 align:middle line:84%
were about children that
were in some way underwater.

00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:32.540 align:middle line:84%
And that as I passed
through a series of years

00:00:32.540 --> 00:00:35.510 align:middle line:84%
of learning about
myself, the child

00:00:35.510 --> 00:00:40.520 align:middle line:84%
was slowly coming up
for air and being saved.

00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:42.020 align:middle line:84%
So this one is
called The Lifeguard.

00:00:42.020 --> 00:00:43.220 align:middle line:90%
It's a persona poem.

00:00:43.220 --> 00:00:44.420 align:middle line:90%
And the speaker is a male.

00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:49.580 align:middle line:90%


00:00:49.580 --> 00:00:52.940 align:middle line:84%
"The children vault the
giant carpet roll of waves,

00:00:52.940 --> 00:00:57.200 align:middle line:84%
with sharp cries swing
legs wide over water.

00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:01.580 align:middle line:84%
A garden of umbrellas blooms
down the stretch of beach.

00:01:01.580 --> 00:01:06.410 align:middle line:84%
Far offshore always I can
spot that same pale thumbprint

00:01:06.410 --> 00:01:10.610 align:middle line:84%
of a face going under,
grown bigger as I approach,

00:01:10.610 --> 00:01:15.170 align:middle line:84%
the one arm circling,
locking rigid around my neck.

00:01:15.170 --> 00:01:20.900 align:middle line:84%
The other as its fist hooks
and jabs my head away.

00:01:20.900 --> 00:01:24.590 align:middle line:84%
Ear to the conch,
ear to the pillow,

00:01:24.590 --> 00:01:28.550 align:middle line:84%
beneath a canopy of bathers
each night I hear the voice

00:01:28.550 --> 00:01:33.710 align:middle line:84%
and pry the jaws apart, choke
on the tangle of sable hair

00:01:33.710 --> 00:01:36.410 align:middle line:84%
that blurs the
dead girl's mouth.

00:01:36.410 --> 00:01:43.050 align:middle line:84%
That anarchy of breath, dog
soft and still at my neck.

00:01:43.050 --> 00:01:47.084 align:middle line:84%
She calls from the water
glass I drink from.

00:01:47.084 --> 00:01:50.500 align:middle line:84%
From my own throat
when I swallow."

00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:51.000 align:middle line:90%