WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.830 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.830 --> 00:00:06.768 align:middle line:84% The next poem is-- the next poem is a poem-- well, 00:00:06.768 --> 00:00:08.560 align:middle line:84% this is a poem I wanted to write for years. 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:10.060 align:middle line:84% It's a poem about drinking, and it's 00:00:10.060 --> 00:00:11.430 align:middle line:90% a poem about a peculiarly-- 00:00:11.430 --> 00:00:14.607 align:middle line:90% 00:00:14.607 --> 00:00:16.440 align:middle line:84% imagine this situation-- you're walking down 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:17.400 align:middle line:84% the street with a friend and it's 00:00:17.400 --> 00:00:18.525 align:middle line:90% 1 o'clock in the afternoon. 00:00:18.525 --> 00:00:21.330 align:middle line:84% And you say, OK, Joe, let's go into the whatever 00:00:21.330 --> 00:00:23.700 align:middle line:84% it is here, whatever the name of the local bar 00:00:23.700 --> 00:00:25.373 align:middle line:90% is where you drop by for a beer. 00:00:25.373 --> 00:00:27.540 align:middle line:84% And we'll go sit in there and have a couple of beers 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:29.220 align:middle line:90% till 2 o'clock. 00:00:29.220 --> 00:00:33.540 align:middle line:84% And 13 hours later, at 2:00 AM, you wobble out of the place. 00:00:33.540 --> 00:00:36.810 align:middle line:84% And in the interim, something very interesting has happened. 00:00:36.810 --> 00:00:38.790 align:middle line:84% Anybody who's done this kind of thing 00:00:38.790 --> 00:00:42.150 align:middle line:90% will sense this arc immediately. 00:00:42.150 --> 00:00:43.860 align:middle line:84% There's all joviality in the afternoon. 00:00:43.860 --> 00:00:46.140 align:middle line:84% And about 9:00 in the evening, the mood 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:47.590 align:middle line:90% begins to change enormously. 00:00:47.590 --> 00:00:50.820 align:middle line:84% It's as if the orchids release this perfume of self-pity. 00:00:50.820 --> 00:00:52.560 align:middle line:84% Everybody sitting around the table 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:56.350 align:middle line:84% is so tragically beautiful, so gloriously doomed, 00:00:56.350 --> 00:00:59.501 align:middle line:84% and so repellent to anybody else who isn't as drunk as they are. 00:00:59.501 --> 00:01:01.660 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:01.660 --> 00:01:05.122 align:middle line:84% But at 2 o'clock, you have to go out into the air and it's cold. 00:01:05.122 --> 00:01:06.580 align:middle line:84% And there are all those poor idiots 00:01:06.580 --> 00:01:07.720 align:middle line:84% on the road who are going to have 00:01:07.720 --> 00:01:08.980 align:middle line:90% to survive your driving home. 00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:10.480 align:middle line:84% And you've got to come to some terms 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:13.960 align:middle line:84% with your life which isn't quite so operatic and lovely. 00:01:13.960 --> 00:01:16.210 align:middle line:84% I wanted to write a poem which would try and duplicate 00:01:16.210 --> 00:01:16.930 align:middle line:90% that arc. 00:01:16.930 --> 00:01:18.355 align:middle line:84% It's a poem called "Another Beer." 00:01:18.355 --> 00:01:23.380 align:middle line:90% 00:01:23.380 --> 00:01:26.920 align:middle line:84% "The first one was for the clock. 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:31.570 align:middle line:84% And it's one song which is the song's name. 00:01:31.570 --> 00:01:35.440 align:middle line:84% Then a beer for the scars in the table, 00:01:35.440 --> 00:01:39.340 align:middle line:84% all healed in the shape of initials. 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:42.130 align:middle line:84% Then a beer for the thirst, and it's one song 00:01:42.130 --> 00:01:44.260 align:middle line:90% we keep forgetting. 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:48.550 align:middle line:84% And a beer for the hands we are keeping to ourselves. 00:01:48.550 --> 00:01:53.080 align:middle line:84% The body's dogs, they lie by the ashtray and thump 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:56.170 align:middle line:90% suddenly in their sleep. 00:01:56.170 --> 00:02:01.780 align:middle line:84% And a beer for our reticence, the true tongue, the one song, 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:05.560 align:middle line:90% the fire made of air. 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:09.490 align:middle line:90% Then a beer for the jukebox. 00:02:09.490 --> 00:02:12.400 align:middle line:84% I wish it had the recording of a Marcel Marceau 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:13.900 align:middle line:90% mime performance-- 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:18.460 align:middle line:84% 28 minutes of silence, two of applause. 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:23.020 align:middle line:84% And a beer for the phone booth, in this confessional, 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:24.820 align:middle line:90% you can sit. 00:02:24.820 --> 00:02:28.000 align:middle line:90% You sing it your one song. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:29.950 align:middle line:84% And let's have a beer for whoever 00:02:29.950 --> 00:02:33.100 align:middle line:84% goes home and sprawls like the remaining 00:02:33.100 --> 00:02:38.170 align:middle line:84% sock in the drawer of his bed and repeats the funny joke 00:02:38.170 --> 00:02:41.890 align:middle line:90% and pulls it shut and sleep. 00:02:41.890 --> 00:02:44.890 align:middle line:84% And a beer for anyone who can't tell 00:02:44.890 --> 00:02:50.920 align:middle line:84% the difference between death and a good cry with its one song. 00:02:50.920 --> 00:02:54.520 align:middle line:90% None of us will rest enough. 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:58.720 align:middle line:84% The last beer is always for the road. 00:02:58.720 --> 00:03:02.620 align:middle line:84% The road is what the car drinks, traveling 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:06.870 align:middle line:84% on its tongue of light all the way home." 00:03:06.870 --> 00:03:12.000 align:middle line:90%