WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.600 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:01.826 align:middle line:90% Can everyone hear me? 00:00:01.826 --> 00:00:02.326 align:middle line:90% Mm-hmm. 00:00:02.326 --> 00:00:03.610 align:middle line:90% Excellent. 00:00:03.610 --> 00:00:06.240 align:middle line:84% I want to start by thanking U of A and the Poetry Center 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.970 align:middle line:84% for inviting me, especially since I 00:00:08.970 --> 00:00:12.918 align:middle line:84% have no book, which means none of you know anything about me. 00:00:12.918 --> 00:00:14.710 align:middle line:84% But hopefully I'll make it worth your time. 00:00:14.710 --> 00:00:17.420 align:middle line:84% I want to thank Allie, particularly, for inviting me. 00:00:17.420 --> 00:00:18.540 align:middle line:90% Tyler, thank you. 00:00:18.540 --> 00:00:20.110 align:middle line:90% You are a great host tonight. 00:00:20.110 --> 00:00:22.350 align:middle line:84% And I also want to thank Polly and Sam 00:00:22.350 --> 00:00:25.688 align:middle line:84% for sharing this reading with me and also for reading. 00:00:25.688 --> 00:00:27.480 align:middle line:84% It's been a pleasure hearing you guys read. 00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:30.270 align:middle line:90% 00:00:30.270 --> 00:00:32.100 align:middle line:90% You guys sure that's good? 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:35.580 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read I think four poems tonight, two of which 00:00:35.580 --> 00:00:39.630 align:middle line:84% are from the upcoming book, and then two sort of newer poems. 00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:41.890 align:middle line:84% So I'm just going to jump right into them. 00:00:41.890 --> 00:00:45.240 align:middle line:84% The first poem is called "Under the Weather." 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:46.650 align:middle line:90% One. 00:00:46.650 --> 00:00:51.300 align:middle line:84% A child once told me the sun is the deadliest animal, violent, 00:00:51.300 --> 00:00:52.860 align:middle line:90% never blinking. 00:00:52.860 --> 00:00:55.950 align:middle line:84% On Sundays, I sit on this mountain with a bottle of water 00:00:55.950 --> 00:00:59.610 align:middle line:84% and a book, any book, not reading, jotting 00:00:59.610 --> 00:01:01.500 align:middle line:90% balloons in the margins. 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:04.050 align:middle line:84% I don't go outside enough and I know it. 00:01:04.050 --> 00:01:07.650 align:middle line:84% Imagine the landscape circling my window at night, mountains 00:01:07.650 --> 00:01:10.290 align:middle line:90% angry and foaming with weather. 00:01:10.290 --> 00:01:13.860 align:middle line:84% There are reasons I sleep until noon, ignore the hours patchy 00:01:13.860 --> 00:01:16.290 align:middle line:90% and corn yellow on my eyelids. 00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:21.480 align:middle line:84% Up North, they say the hills move slowly, like tongues. 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:24.330 align:middle line:84% I saw a video once of people gathering to burn letters 00:01:24.330 --> 00:01:26.280 align:middle line:90% to loved ones who had passed. 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:29.130 align:middle line:84% They were sick with grief, but shuffled around the fire, 00:01:29.130 --> 00:01:31.470 align:middle line:90% waiting for someone to speak. 00:01:31.470 --> 00:01:33.840 align:middle line:84% I once heard you whisper, the decision 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:38.010 align:middle line:84% to give words to suffering is still a decision. 00:01:38.010 --> 00:01:39.690 align:middle line:90% Two. 00:01:39.690 --> 00:01:42.240 align:middle line:90% A man robbed a Walmart in Ohio. 00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:45.460 align:middle line:84% When the cops were called, he ran and hid in a dumpster. 00:01:45.460 --> 00:01:48.240 align:middle line:84% The not so funny part is that he is picked up by a truck 00:01:48.240 --> 00:01:50.850 align:middle line:90% and compacted for an hour. 00:01:50.850 --> 00:01:53.190 align:middle line:84% He called 911 from the truck, screaming 00:01:53.190 --> 00:01:56.880 align:middle line:84% that he was being crushed, that he couldn't feel his legs. 00:01:56.880 --> 00:01:59.340 align:middle line:84% It took the cops another hour to pinpoint the truck, 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.830 align:middle line:84% and they tried but couldn't pull him out. 00:02:01.830 --> 00:02:04.500 align:middle line:84% They dumped him on the street and said all they could see 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:08.310 align:middle line:84% was an arm dangling from a mound of flattened boxes. 00:02:08.310 --> 00:02:12.900 align:middle line:84% I only laughed because of how easily it could have been me. 00:02:12.900 --> 00:02:14.640 align:middle line:90% Three. 00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:18.810 align:middle line:84% Dear pomegranate, dear wild iris and seed, 00:02:18.810 --> 00:02:20.620 align:middle line:90% I will do things differently. 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:23.550 align:middle line:90% The first time, again. 00:02:23.550 --> 00:02:26.500 align:middle line:84% Before I peel the curtains back like flaps of skin, 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:30.900 align:middle line:84% what I am rolls over in the body, restless, the windows 00:02:30.900 --> 00:02:34.260 align:middle line:84% chattering, the voice of a truck moving through everything 00:02:34.260 --> 00:02:35.850 align:middle line:90% like a ghost. 00:02:35.850 --> 00:02:39.510 align:middle line:84% I fear the news the way I fear the truth. 00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:42.900 align:middle line:84% On the mountain, the sweat coats my face like pollen. 00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:46.290 align:middle line:84% The higher I go, the more anxious I become. 00:02:46.290 --> 00:02:48.690 align:middle line:84% My heart is swollen as a calf, bitten 00:02:48.690 --> 00:02:52.410 align:middle line:84% by a spider, the body dragging itself in delirium, 00:02:52.410 --> 00:02:54.980 align:middle line:90% going everywhere but home. 00:02:54.980 --> 00:02:56.427 align:middle line:90%