WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.500 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.500 --> 00:00:03.990 align:middle line:84% Many of the poems in Skirts and Slacks 00:00:03.990 --> 00:00:07.860 align:middle line:84% have to do with different kinds of uncertainty. 00:00:07.860 --> 00:00:11.670 align:middle line:84% And a lot of the poems came out of a period of my life 00:00:11.670 --> 00:00:15.810 align:middle line:90% when things were disintegrating. 00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:17.310 align:middle line:90% My marriage was disintegrating. 00:00:17.310 --> 00:00:19.770 align:middle line:84% People were-- family and friends were dying. 00:00:19.770 --> 00:00:22.890 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.890 --> 00:00:23.925 align:middle line:90% I was very unstable. 00:00:23.925 --> 00:00:26.460 align:middle line:90% 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:28.020 align:middle line:84% And so, I'll read a few of those that 00:00:28.020 --> 00:00:29.370 align:middle line:90% have to do with those things. 00:00:29.370 --> 00:00:34.620 align:middle line:84% This is when my mother finally took ill, 00:00:34.620 --> 00:00:38.602 align:middle line:84% about three, four years ago, she was 00:00:38.602 --> 00:00:39.810 align:middle line:90% staying at my sister's house. 00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:41.670 align:middle line:84% I was born and raised in South Philadelphia, 00:00:41.670 --> 00:00:43.837 align:middle line:84% and everybody in my family is still in Philadelphia. 00:00:43.837 --> 00:00:46.870 align:middle line:84% My sister lives in the northeast, 00:00:46.870 --> 00:00:51.090 align:middle line:84% which is simply a slightly more upscale version of South 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:51.700 align:middle line:90% Philadelphia. 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:55.710 align:middle line:84% The old red brick row homes, you know, 00:00:55.710 --> 00:00:59.500 align:middle line:84% where the first thing you do if you move into such a house is 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:01.800 align:middle line:84% you take a loan so that you can finish your basement. 00:01:01.800 --> 00:01:04.470 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:04.470 --> 00:01:07.430 align:middle line:90% 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:10.440 align:middle line:84% And my mother, there was nothing the hospice could do with her, 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:14.140 align:middle line:84% so she was getting hospice care in the basement of my sister's 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:14.640 align:middle line:90% house. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.850 align:middle line:84% And I had a cot next to my mother's bed. 00:01:17.850 --> 00:01:21.798 align:middle line:84% So I spent the days there until finally I 00:01:21.798 --> 00:01:22.840 align:middle line:90% couldn't take it anymore. 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:23.550 align:middle line:90% So I got out. 00:01:23.550 --> 00:01:24.700 align:middle line:90% I just got out. 00:01:24.700 --> 00:01:25.800 align:middle line:90% I had to get out. 00:01:25.800 --> 00:01:26.670 align:middle line:90% Go somewhere. 00:01:26.670 --> 00:01:27.840 align:middle line:90% Go for a walk or whatever. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:28.890 align:middle line:90% So I ended up in a bar. 00:01:28.890 --> 00:01:32.010 align:middle line:90% 00:01:32.010 --> 00:01:37.590 align:middle line:84% And there was a snowstorm going on, a really bad snowstorm. 00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:40.170 align:middle line:90% And this poem comes out of that. 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:46.370 align:middle line:90% 00:01:46.370 --> 00:01:47.460 align:middle line:90% It's in two parts. 00:01:47.460 --> 00:01:50.270 align:middle line:84% The title of the poem is, "Cheap Gold Flats." 00:01:50.270 --> 00:01:54.440 align:middle line:84% And the first part is, "Philly Babylon". 00:01:54.440 --> 00:01:58.520 align:middle line:84% "The bartender, tossing cans carton-to-cooler, 00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:02.900 align:middle line:84% hand-to-hand, with silky mortal ease, 00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:05.770 align:middle line:84% while the 4 PM beer and shot standees 00:02:05.770 --> 00:02:09.949 align:middle line:84% study the voiceless TV above our heads. 00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:13.940 align:middle line:84% The worst and longest storm on record. 00:02:13.940 --> 00:02:16.640 align:middle line:84% Ice works, canal, the pavements, power lines 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:20.900 align:middle line:84% down, cars pillowed helpless in the snow. 00:02:20.900 --> 00:02:25.550 align:middle line:84% Bus fumes vulcanize the twilight's 911 sirens. 00:02:25.550 --> 00:02:28.790 align:middle line:90% Enter Hotspur with alarums. 00:02:28.790 --> 00:02:34.400 align:middle line:84% Enter Hazel, touching my elbow at the bar. 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:39.110 align:middle line:84% My staticky daily news breaks in the drift. 00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:43.610 align:middle line:84% What's my horoscope say today, honey? 00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:50.060 align:middle line:84% Dear Hazel, dear Pisces, don't be hurt. 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:52.190 align:middle line:90% Leave me alone a while. 00:02:52.190 --> 00:02:53.210 align:middle line:90% My mother's dying. 00:02:53.210 --> 00:02:56.240 align:middle line:84% I've been beside her bed for several days. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:00.650 align:middle line:84% Today she had an extremer monkey look, her forehead shrunk down 00:03:00.650 --> 00:03:01.970 align:middle line:90% to the bucky jaw. 00:03:01.970 --> 00:03:04.190 align:middle line:84% And when she looks above her head, 00:03:04.190 --> 00:03:08.750 align:middle line:84% she groans to see whatever it is she sees. 00:03:08.750 --> 00:03:10.730 align:middle line:90% So here, take my paper. 00:03:10.730 --> 00:03:11.930 align:middle line:90% Go home. 00:03:11.930 --> 00:03:14.840 align:middle line:90% Forgive me." 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:18.320 align:middle line:84% This is the second part, Finished Basement. 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:23.510 align:middle line:84% "Tonight's big question, what will she be laid out in? 00:03:23.510 --> 00:03:27.250 align:middle line:84% Disco tracks jump inside the paneling. 00:03:27.250 --> 00:03:31.910 align:middle line:84% Rita loved to dance, and so do I. The sisters, 00:03:31.910 --> 00:03:35.180 align:middle line:84% Rachel and Jeanette, and nieces coming straight from work, 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:39.530 align:middle line:84% shout across her bed, voicing with our faithful music 00:03:39.530 --> 00:03:41.660 align:middle line:90% in the walls. 00:03:41.660 --> 00:03:44.420 align:middle line:90% Charm bracelet, definitely. 00:03:44.420 --> 00:03:46.490 align:middle line:90% The one she hardly wore. 00:03:46.490 --> 00:03:51.260 align:middle line:84% And cheap gold flats that made her look young and men 00:03:51.260 --> 00:03:53.960 align:middle line:90% look twice. 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:55.280 align:middle line:90% Yackety-yak. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:59.450 align:middle line:84% The unconscious bone doesn't miss a thing we say. 00:03:59.450 --> 00:04:04.430 align:middle line:84% It's used up flesh, helpless on the pillow. 00:04:04.430 --> 00:04:10.460 align:middle line:84% Later, alone with her, the only noise near me 00:04:10.460 --> 00:04:14.180 align:middle line:84% is this new rattle in her throat. 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:17.240 align:middle line:90% I hear it behind me, too. 00:04:17.240 --> 00:04:20.660 align:middle line:84% The disposal upstairs, a drainpipe clearing, 00:04:20.660 --> 00:04:26.570 align:middle line:84% whatever it is, I feel it coming closer to finger my hair 00:04:26.570 --> 00:04:29.290 align:middle line:90% and stroke my neck." 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:32.000 align:middle line:90%