WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:05.687 align:middle line:84%
The next one is about
a similar character.

00:00:05.687 --> 00:00:08.310 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:08.310 --> 00:00:10.470 align:middle line:84%
Also from my neighborhood,
matter of fact,

00:00:10.470 --> 00:00:14.178 align:middle line:84%
from right up in
the next floor up.

00:00:14.178 --> 00:00:15.720 align:middle line:84%
There's a girl named
Beverly, and I'm

00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:19.230 align:middle line:84%
sure everybody has a
Beverly in his past.

00:00:19.230 --> 00:00:22.050 align:middle line:90%


00:00:22.050 --> 00:00:24.570 align:middle line:84%
The only thing that I
should say about the poem

00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:25.770 align:middle line:84%
is that there's a mention
of something called

00:00:25.770 --> 00:00:26.670 align:middle line:90%
a House of Good Shepherd.

00:00:26.670 --> 00:00:28.630 align:middle line:84%
I don't know if they have
that all over the country,

00:00:28.630 --> 00:00:30.990 align:middle line:84%
but back in Massachusetts,
the House of Good Shepherd

00:00:30.990 --> 00:00:34.200 align:middle line:90%
is a reform school for girls.

00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:35.460 align:middle line:90%
I think run by nuns.

00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:38.380 align:middle line:90%
I'm not sure.

00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:41.340 align:middle line:84%
But she got sent up there
at one point in her career.

00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:44.270 align:middle line:90%


00:00:44.270 --> 00:00:47.130 align:middle line:90%
"In Praise of Beverly."

00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:50.580 align:middle line:84%
"When you walk down the
stairs to touch my root,

00:00:50.580 --> 00:00:53.130 align:middle line:90%
God knows what brought you.

00:00:53.130 --> 00:00:57.150 align:middle line:84%
Barely 14, already
known as the town pump,

00:00:57.150 --> 00:01:00.840 align:middle line:84%
and proud of your
clear attributes.

00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.270 align:middle line:84%
I imagine you in
that narrow bed,

00:01:03.270 --> 00:01:07.110 align:middle line:84%
close to your parents,
drunk, lungless breathing,

00:01:07.110 --> 00:01:09.090 align:middle line:90%
plotting love.

00:01:09.090 --> 00:01:12.720 align:middle line:84%
I touched your breasts for
something, I don't know what?

00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:14.520 align:middle line:90%
For luck?

00:01:14.520 --> 00:01:17.730 align:middle line:84%
I don't think we ever kissed,
but once we lay in a ditch

00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:22.320 align:middle line:84%
in summer, roasting
apples, careless for hours.

00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:26.760 align:middle line:84%
When the fire grabbed the weeds,
you held my root, and grinned,

00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:31.410 align:middle line:84%
and said, 'let's wait to
hear the fire engines come.'

00:01:31.410 --> 00:01:34.590 align:middle line:84%
You got sent up early, to
the House of Good Shepherd,

00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:38.040 align:middle line:84%
because the mothers were
jealous of your favors.

00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:40.770 align:middle line:84%
When the friendly
leering cop said,

00:01:40.770 --> 00:01:44.610 align:middle line:84%
'I hear you've been dipping
the wick in Beverly,' I blushed

00:01:44.610 --> 00:01:49.950 align:middle line:84%
and stammered, proud,
then lied to save my skin.

00:01:49.950 --> 00:01:53.620 align:middle line:84%
The night they took you
away, I dreamed your face,

00:01:53.620 --> 00:01:57.240 align:middle line:84%
your hands that pulled
away the dark were mine.

00:01:57.240 --> 00:02:03.450 align:middle line:84%
And grown to share your misery,
I found my own in my good time.

00:02:03.450 --> 00:02:06.000 align:middle line:84%
Now the cops are
lurking on Hillside,

00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.910 align:middle line:90%
for the lost pain of Beverly.

00:02:08.910 --> 00:02:13.380 align:middle line:84%
You can't imagine the emptiness,
the sabbath of fantasy."

00:02:13.380 --> 00:02:16.430 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:16.430 --> 00:02:17.000 align:middle line:90%