WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.460 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.460 --> 00:00:06.340 align:middle line:84%
This is a poem I
wrote last summer

00:00:06.340 --> 00:00:07.510 align:middle line:90%
when my grandfather died.

00:00:07.510 --> 00:00:12.040 align:middle line:90%


00:00:12.040 --> 00:00:15.790 align:middle line:84%
Not much to say
about a grandfather.

00:00:15.790 --> 00:00:17.770 align:middle line:84%
It's about growing
up, I suppose.

00:00:17.770 --> 00:00:21.612 align:middle line:84%
Growing up through
other people's deaths.

00:00:21.612 --> 00:00:25.920 align:middle line:84%
[LAUGHS] This guy's a
little strange, maybe.

00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:27.810 align:middle line:90%
"Grandfather."

00:00:27.810 --> 00:00:31.530 align:middle line:84%
"Each day my grandfather
dies, I grow a little.

00:00:31.530 --> 00:00:33.300 align:middle line:90%
Soon I will reach the table.

00:00:33.300 --> 00:00:35.820 align:middle line:90%
Soon I will leave home.

00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:37.770 align:middle line:90%
Grandfather was a gentleman.

00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:40.860 align:middle line:84%
I never saw him cry
until the last day, when

00:00:40.860 --> 00:00:45.390 align:middle line:84%
the blood already clotted a
little here, a little there.

00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:49.710 align:middle line:84%
My fingernails and hair grow
at an enormous rate lately.

00:00:49.710 --> 00:00:53.130 align:middle line:84%
Each morning, my grandfather
loses his memory.

00:00:53.130 --> 00:00:56.850 align:middle line:84%
He rehearses his life by
counting to ten in Russian,

00:00:56.850 --> 00:00:58.830 align:middle line:90%
Hebrew, and English.

00:00:58.830 --> 00:01:00.510 align:middle line:90%
The blood sighs.

00:01:00.510 --> 00:01:02.970 align:middle line:90%
Each morning, I grow stronger.

00:01:02.970 --> 00:01:06.060 align:middle line:84%
I crushed fruit with
my bare hands today.

00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:09.000 align:middle line:90%
Soon I will be a man.

00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.600 align:middle line:84%
At grandfather's funeral,
no one had much to say.

00:01:12.600 --> 00:01:15.270 align:middle line:84%
When a man is a gentleman
for so many years

00:01:15.270 --> 00:01:19.110 align:middle line:84%
and no one fears him, he
is lost among relatives.

00:01:19.110 --> 00:01:23.130 align:middle line:84%
They toss a little earth,
they wonder if it will rain.

00:01:23.130 --> 00:01:26.040 align:middle line:84%
If only he could find
a story to tell us.

00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:27.570 align:middle line:90%
What do the dead eat?

00:01:27.570 --> 00:01:29.700 align:middle line:90%
Is it fun, like travel?

00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:34.200 align:middle line:84%
And the pain, is it
still unreal, like here?

00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:36.510 align:middle line:84%
A week before he died,
I wrote a letter.

00:01:36.510 --> 00:01:37.920 align:middle line:90%
Dear grandfather.

00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:39.780 align:middle line:90%
What else could I say?

00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:43.140 align:middle line:84%
Here are a few words for the
family to say at the funeral.

00:01:43.140 --> 00:01:44.430 align:middle line:90%
Dear grandfather.

00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:46.380 align:middle line:90%
Over and over.

00:01:46.380 --> 00:01:48.150 align:middle line:90%
There are no new stories.

00:01:48.150 --> 00:01:50.600 align:middle line:90%
They all end the same."

00:01:50.600 --> 00:01:53.000 align:middle line:90%