WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.960 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:07.680 align:middle line:84%
It's a very fragile sight to
see a preadolescent girl who

00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:09.960 align:middle line:90%
knows how to--

00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.860 align:middle line:84%
is still learning the
ways of looking older,

00:00:13.860 --> 00:00:17.450 align:middle line:90%
trying to act older and whatnot.

00:00:17.450 --> 00:00:23.740 align:middle line:84%
And this is a poem about
that kind of masking

00:00:23.740 --> 00:00:27.370 align:middle line:84%
and the fragility of
the masking of the self.

00:00:27.370 --> 00:00:29.950 align:middle line:84%
The title of the poem is
"At St. Hubie's Altar."

00:00:29.950 --> 00:00:31.500 align:middle line:90%
St. Hubie's is St. Hubert's.

00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:33.940 align:middle line:84%
It's a church in
North Philadelphia.

00:00:33.940 --> 00:00:39.070 align:middle line:84%
And the setting is a
viewing, a funeral viewing.

00:00:39.070 --> 00:00:41.830 align:middle line:90%


00:00:41.830 --> 00:00:45.250 align:middle line:90%
"At St. Hubie's Altar."

00:00:45.250 --> 00:00:51.070 align:middle line:84%
"The effort of it, the
Egyptian teenage princess look.

00:00:51.070 --> 00:00:56.140 align:middle line:84%
Crushed cinnabar blush,
the surprised large mouth

00:00:56.140 --> 00:01:01.210 align:middle line:84%
her brown lip liner draws,
gelled tresses ribbed

00:01:01.210 --> 00:01:03.130 align:middle line:90%
across the runway shoulders.

00:01:03.130 --> 00:01:09.430 align:middle line:84%
So many modeling classes to
craft a seeable self, pencil

00:01:09.430 --> 00:01:15.430 align:middle line:84%
skirt at sixteen and
high-heeled sandals that snagged

00:01:15.430 --> 00:01:19.660 align:middle line:90%
the casket's red carpet.

00:01:19.660 --> 00:01:23.140 align:middle line:84%
Tripped toward the
aunt she never liked,

00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:27.070 align:middle line:84%
who disliked her because
she never listened to nobody

00:01:27.070 --> 00:01:30.040 align:middle line:84%
and acted like she
owned the world.

00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:34.870 align:middle line:84%
She weirdly seemed to
want to fall inside and be

00:01:34.870 --> 00:01:42.130 align:middle line:84%
with that blanched life,
but someone gathered her

00:01:42.130 --> 00:01:45.130 align:middle line:90%
and seined her back to us.

00:01:45.130 --> 00:01:47.860 align:middle line:90%


00:01:47.860 --> 00:01:52.900 align:middle line:84%
How she must hate that visage
in her vanity mirror, the silly

00:01:52.900 --> 00:01:57.610 align:middle line:84%
earnest child, face
banged up by tears,

00:01:57.610 --> 00:02:03.930 align:middle line:84%
who can't even help herself,
who drools and bites her hair."

00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:05.000 align:middle line:90%