WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.310 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.310 --> 00:00:06.360 align:middle line:84% Whenever my wife and I and now my oldest daughter 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:11.040 align:middle line:84% go traveling, they seem to eat a lot. 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:13.320 align:middle line:84% Now I eat a lot when I'm at home. 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:17.280 align:middle line:84% But I really don't eat a lot when I travel. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:19.950 align:middle line:84% And I remember once we were in, I think it was St. Cloud, 00:00:19.950 --> 00:00:21.850 align:middle line:90% Minnesota. 00:00:21.850 --> 00:00:24.570 align:middle line:84% My wife ordered a half a chicken. 00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:26.130 align:middle line:84% And my daughter, who, at that time, 00:00:26.130 --> 00:00:31.110 align:middle line:84% was maybe about two and a half, got a quarter of a chicken. 00:00:31.110 --> 00:00:32.750 align:middle line:84% And the waitress was really amazed. 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:34.500 align:middle line:84% And she kept bringing me that-- first, she 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:35.550 align:middle line:90% brought me the half chicken. 00:00:35.550 --> 00:00:35.970 align:middle line:90% I said, no. 00:00:35.970 --> 00:00:36.670 align:middle line:90% That's not for me. 00:00:36.670 --> 00:00:37.870 align:middle line:84% Then she brought me the quarter chicken. 00:00:37.870 --> 00:00:38.430 align:middle line:90% And I said, no. 00:00:38.430 --> 00:00:39.210 align:middle line:90% That's not for me. 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:41.980 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.980 --> 00:00:44.267 align:middle line:90% So anyway. 00:00:44.267 --> 00:00:46.350 align:middle line:84% I'm telling you this because the name of this poem 00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:48.208 align:middle line:84% is After the Truckers' Restaurant. 00:00:48.208 --> 00:00:50.250 align:middle line:84% And the reason it's really a truckers' restaurant 00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:53.580 align:middle line:84% is because, when I travel, I'll tend to stop 00:00:53.580 --> 00:00:54.623 align:middle line:90% at truckers' restaurants. 00:00:54.623 --> 00:00:56.040 align:middle line:84% Because you can get a lot of food. 00:00:56.040 --> 00:00:57.790 align:middle line:90% And I have people who eat a lot. 00:00:57.790 --> 00:00:59.220 align:middle line:90% I have to-- 00:00:59.220 --> 00:01:01.110 align:middle line:90% I'm a provider. 00:01:01.110 --> 00:01:05.940 align:middle line:84% So something else that kind of sets the way 00:01:05.940 --> 00:01:10.380 align:middle line:84% I'm thinking in the poem, we're, I guess, in British Columbia. 00:01:10.380 --> 00:01:16.230 align:middle line:84% And we're just about ready to go up into the Canadian Rockies. 00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:18.750 align:middle line:84% We're running ahead of a rainstorm. 00:01:18.750 --> 00:01:20.520 align:middle line:84% And I decide I don't want to camp 00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:26.220 align:middle line:84% because I don't want to have to drop and fold up a wet tent. 00:01:26.220 --> 00:01:28.530 align:middle line:84% So my wife decides, well that's fine. 00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:32.280 align:middle line:84% If I don't want to camp, I have to drive. 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:33.990 align:middle line:90% So I'll be driving all night. 00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:36.660 align:middle line:90% 00:01:36.660 --> 00:01:38.520 align:middle line:90% And she's sleeping. 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:42.450 align:middle line:84% And we pulled into a truckers' restaurant. 00:01:42.450 --> 00:01:44.370 align:middle line:84% And the truckers were talking about you 00:01:44.370 --> 00:01:48.630 align:middle line:84% know who drove off the road the other night and nanana this. 00:01:48.630 --> 00:01:51.540 align:middle line:90% She just kept on eating. 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:54.570 align:middle line:84% And so, finally, we went outside again. 00:01:54.570 --> 00:01:56.730 align:middle line:90% And we got in the car. 00:01:56.730 --> 00:01:57.810 align:middle line:90% And we're in the car. 00:01:57.810 --> 00:02:00.180 align:middle line:90% And we're driving along. 00:02:00.180 --> 00:02:02.490 align:middle line:84% And I start thinking about the stories. 00:02:02.490 --> 00:02:03.390 align:middle line:90% And it's dark. 00:02:03.390 --> 00:02:05.760 align:middle line:84% And we're winding in the mountain. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:07.770 align:middle line:90% And that wasn't so bad. 00:02:07.770 --> 00:02:09.509 align:middle line:84% But, for the first time in my life, 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:14.160 align:middle line:84% I suddenly realized that, when you breathe on a pane of glass, 00:02:14.160 --> 00:02:17.310 align:middle line:84% the pattern tends to be circular. 00:02:17.310 --> 00:02:21.390 align:middle line:84% And just seeing a circle made me think about zero. 00:02:21.390 --> 00:02:23.580 align:middle line:84% And it really kind of turned my head around. 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:25.890 align:middle line:84% I had the feeling that everything was conspiring, 00:02:25.890 --> 00:02:27.030 align:middle line:90% and this was it. 00:02:27.030 --> 00:02:30.525 align:middle line:84% So that's the emotion that's kind of underlying the poem. 00:02:30.525 --> 00:02:31.650 align:middle line:90% So I'll just read the poem. 00:02:31.650 --> 00:02:34.770 align:middle line:90% 00:02:34.770 --> 00:02:41.100 align:middle line:84% Men look at curves in the dark with both their eyes. 00:02:41.100 --> 00:02:46.890 align:middle line:84% Any line that is a turned mouth in the sides of a mountain, 00:02:46.890 --> 00:02:51.390 align:middle line:84% truckers believe you can turn to a nerve in that mouth that 00:02:51.390 --> 00:02:55.170 align:middle line:90% screams so no one hears it. 00:02:55.170 --> 00:02:59.520 align:middle line:84% In sleeping, my woman breathes a sign 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:03.660 align:middle line:84% on the window about zeros blinking. 00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:06.030 align:middle line:90% She's trusting. 00:03:06.030 --> 00:03:13.080 align:middle line:84% To touch that trust, I trace my hand where all zeros come from. 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:20.940 align:middle line:84% I am a man as black as the back of every curve that awaits me. 00:03:20.940 --> 00:03:26.910 align:middle line:84% My headlights are on high beam, if that can help. 00:03:26.910 --> 00:03:32.400 align:middle line:84% And I hear voices coming from all of the spots I will never 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:36.420 align:middle line:90% see of the roads in the dark. 00:03:36.420 --> 00:03:41.730 align:middle line:84% Whatever I will do tonight, that's coming too. 00:03:41.730 --> 00:03:43.650 align:middle line:90% I can hear it. 00:03:43.650 --> 00:03:47.960 align:middle line:90% She can hear it, sleeping. 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:49.303 align:middle line:90%