How are you guys feeling?
You liking these upbeat poems about death?
This one is called "The Person Who Was Expected."
This is-- are you enjoying the?
Yes.
I wish I could watch it.
We're about ready to do a comedy routine from the '30s.
She's talking about me right now.
I got to stop that, this could go on forever.
Who's on first?
This is called "The Person Who Was Expected."
One of my very favorite poets is James Tate
and we were talking about him in class,
and I tried to write a book that was a little bit like Memoir
of the Hawk.
And this was me trying to figure out exactly what this guy is
doing in Memoir of the Hawk.
And so I tried to write a poem that would
fit if I placed it in there.
I would try to do it so that nobody would notice
that it wasn't him who wrote it, that was the goal of this poem.
And I got to read this to him a few months ago.
The person who was expected.
A man is sitting at a table.
A woman says, can I sit with you?
The man says, sorry, but I'm expecting someone.
The woman sits down anyway and says, I'm your wife.
The man says no, no, you're not my wife.
But you do look familiar, I think I'm your father.
The woman says oh, no, you're not my father, you're my son.
Where have you been?
They stare at one another until the person who was expected
shows up and hands the man a magic baby.
It grows in his hands, it's hair spreads across the floor.
This makes sense.
The four of them live in the future,
where everything makes perfect sense under a blue, crying beam
of bird light.