WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.710 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.710 --> 00:00:03.060 align:middle line:90%
And this poem is for Allie.

00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:05.400 align:middle line:84%
I said I promised
to read it for her.

00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:09.420 align:middle line:84%
This is from Undertow,
which is my first book.

00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:13.470 align:middle line:84%
Summer is the season
for cutting back.

00:00:13.470 --> 00:00:17.820 align:middle line:84%
My father's mower roars and
drones, the edge of evening

00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:20.430 align:middle line:90%
frayed beyond its use.

00:00:20.430 --> 00:00:24.390 align:middle line:84%
Puff balls haunt
the graying lawn.

00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:28.680 align:middle line:84%
I hear the grass'
faint, nocturnal cries.

00:00:28.680 --> 00:00:32.610 align:middle line:84%
As if it mattered, as if
it could have mattered.

00:00:32.610 --> 00:00:37.470 align:middle line:84%
A small bag filled with small
things, hidden and discovered.

00:00:37.470 --> 00:00:39.180 align:middle line:90%
Is this yours?

00:00:39.180 --> 00:00:42.780 align:middle line:90%
After only an hour had elapsed.

00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:48.030 align:middle line:84%
Summer, my father tells me,
is the time for pruning back.

00:00:48.030 --> 00:00:52.590 align:middle line:84%
Every tree around
us bears this scar.

00:00:52.590 --> 00:00:54.600 align:middle line:84%
I watch him from
the cherry tree.

00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:57.750 align:middle line:84%
Its black and supple
limbs, the sad moss

00:00:57.750 --> 00:00:59.790 align:middle line:90%
mounded thickly at the root.

00:00:59.790 --> 00:01:02.370 align:middle line:84%
The ladder of the
lower branches cut

00:01:02.370 --> 00:01:05.489 align:middle line:90%
and always my difficult climb.

00:01:05.489 --> 00:01:07.050 align:middle line:90%
I could not stop.

00:01:07.050 --> 00:01:09.150 align:middle line:90%
I could not be stopped.

00:01:09.150 --> 00:01:13.230 align:middle line:84%
A small girl filled with
small things, a spider

00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:15.990 align:middle line:84%
on the leaf, the
bark's rough curl.

00:01:15.990 --> 00:01:19.680 align:middle line:84%
The sudden sun receding
from the trees.

00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:21.930 align:middle line:90%
Or say not I, but she.

00:01:21.930 --> 00:01:24.630 align:middle line:90%
Not he, but they.

00:01:24.630 --> 00:01:27.720 align:middle line:84%
She searches in the dusk
while someone shouts, then

00:01:27.720 --> 00:01:31.500 align:middle line:84%
slips toward the wooded edge
as if she would lift the grass

00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:32.820 align:middle line:90%
and slide beneath.

00:01:32.820 --> 00:01:36.150 align:middle line:90%
Then let them call and call.

00:01:36.150 --> 00:01:38.250 align:middle line:84%
There's nothing in
their voices that

00:01:38.250 --> 00:01:43.560 align:middle line:84%
could love the dark mass of
the elms, the gathered birds.

00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:46.590 align:middle line:90%
She hovers in the hour resolute.

00:01:46.590 --> 00:01:50.100 align:middle line:84%
The leaves become a
temple of gray light.

00:01:50.100 --> 00:01:53.550 align:middle line:84%
Cherry branches
touch her thighs.

00:01:53.550 --> 00:01:59.640 align:middle line:84%
The bony roots of trees
extend, but slowly, coldly,

00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:02.250 align:middle line:90%
something ancient waits.

00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:06.380 align:middle line:84%
And it is this to
which she is betrothed.

00:02:06.380 --> 00:02:08.000 align:middle line:90%