WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.260 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:02.295 align:middle line:90%
OK.

00:00:02.295 --> 00:00:04.170 align:middle line:84%
One other poem-- I'm
working on this new book

00:00:04.170 --> 00:00:05.490 align:middle line:90%
is called The Music at Home.

00:00:05.490 --> 00:00:12.450 align:middle line:84%
And this very, very
long prosy poems

00:00:12.450 --> 00:00:15.000 align:middle line:84%
as in the karate poem
and the other ones

00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:20.200 align:middle line:84%
I've read so they take a
long time like this one.

00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:23.938 align:middle line:90%
This is called "Some Mysteries."

00:00:23.938 --> 00:00:25.980 align:middle line:84%
This is the-- you know
the one I was referring to

00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:31.620 align:middle line:90%
about the ringer washer arm.

00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:34.970 align:middle line:84%
"I was pretty holy
by third grade.

00:00:34.970 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:84%
Mother could see
that and can see

00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:39.840 align:middle line:84%
that I had given up
stealing butt-faced plums

00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:42.780 align:middle line:84%
and walking with Pepsi
cans smashed onto my shoes.

00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:45.630 align:middle line:90%


00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:47.520 align:middle line:84%
And Sundays she
gave me a quarter

00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.100 align:middle line:84%
for the wicker basket,
smoothed my hair with water

00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:51.810 align:middle line:90%
and let me go.

00:00:51.810 --> 00:00:55.110 align:middle line:84%
I sat in the front pew among old
Italian women hunched together

00:00:55.110 --> 00:00:58.800 align:middle line:84%
like pigeons, happy because
it was only a matter of time

00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:03.120 align:middle line:84%
before Monsignor would
say we are sinners then

00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:05.459 align:middle line:90%
glint his glasses at me.

00:01:05.459 --> 00:01:08.910 align:middle line:84%
I would look at his shoes
and nod my head yes.

00:01:08.910 --> 00:01:14.550 align:middle line:84%
I recalled my sins years
before I tossed a hairbrush

00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:17.340 align:middle line:90%
into my sister's panties.

00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:21.150 align:middle line:84%
It was a game in our
bedroom, doctor, doctor.

00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:23.550 align:middle line:84%
And the hairbrush was
about the only thing

00:01:23.550 --> 00:01:26.370 align:middle line:90%
that resembled a doctor's tool.

00:01:26.370 --> 00:01:29.530 align:middle line:84%
I opened her panties and
said this should help.

00:01:29.530 --> 00:01:30.030 align:middle line:90%
Buzzzz.

00:01:30.030 --> 00:01:32.220 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:32.220 --> 00:01:37.590 align:middle line:84%
And just then mother came in
with her apron of chickens

00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:41.010 align:middle line:90%
and said Alex is having a party.

00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:43.800 align:middle line:84%
Alex, the boy whose
hand traveled both ways

00:01:43.800 --> 00:01:45.990 align:middle line:90%
in the ringer washer.

00:01:45.990 --> 00:01:50.100 align:middle line:84%
The sister and I were scared
because we thought mother saw.

00:01:50.100 --> 00:01:51.060 align:middle line:90%
She didn't.

00:01:51.060 --> 00:01:55.650 align:middle line:84%
She wrung her hands into the
apron said wash your faces.

00:01:55.650 --> 00:01:59.550 align:middle line:84%
I went first to the bathroom and
hurt myself with a hot water.

00:01:59.550 --> 00:02:02.970 align:middle line:84%
The handles of the
faucets were confusing.

00:02:02.970 --> 00:02:05.790 align:middle line:90%
I couldn't see sister.

00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:08.070 align:middle line:84%
For a moment I had
ruined my eyesight.

00:02:08.070 --> 00:02:10.680 align:middle line:84%
I saw the brush
wagging and her panties

00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:14.010 align:middle line:90%
as mother prodded us to the car.

00:02:14.010 --> 00:02:17.280 align:middle line:84%
Sometime between our
house and Alex's house,

00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:20.370 align:middle line:84%
between childhood
and her older years,

00:02:20.370 --> 00:02:25.230 align:middle line:84%
she got the brush out,
that and a lot more.

00:02:25.230 --> 00:02:26.970 align:middle line:84%
In church I would
remember my sins

00:02:26.970 --> 00:02:29.130 align:middle line:84%
and smiled and feel
bad for remembering

00:02:29.130 --> 00:02:30.960 align:middle line:90%
such things in church.

00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:33.720 align:middle line:84%
I would take communion
and feel truly bad.

00:02:33.720 --> 00:02:36.960 align:middle line:84%
And when mass was over, stand
outside looking at the church

00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.510 align:middle line:90%
before I started home.

00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:42.300 align:middle line:84%
I like to walk
home, and like when

00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:45.540 align:middle line:84%
I passed the rectory,
behind a thorny wall,

00:02:45.540 --> 00:02:49.740 align:middle line:84%
thumping sounds like a soccer
ball which made me wonder what

00:02:49.740 --> 00:02:51.060 align:middle line:90%
our nuns did on the weekends.

00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:52.080 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:55.110 align:middle line:84%
I would listen for
a while then leave

00:02:55.110 --> 00:02:56.970 align:middle line:84%
thinking that
maybe this was what

00:02:56.970 --> 00:02:59.550 align:middle line:84%
mystery was, that
you hear a thump

00:02:59.550 --> 00:03:02.640 align:middle line:90%
and have to guess at what it is.

00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:06.210 align:middle line:84%
I guessed a soccer ball and
saw Sister Marie running around

00:03:06.210 --> 00:03:09.180 align:middle line:84%
the yard with Monsignor's
hands pressed together

00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:12.870 align:middle line:84%
in prayer, his eyes like
the floating eyes of saints

00:03:12.870 --> 00:03:15.780 align:middle line:90%
on the church ceiling.

00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:20.415 align:middle line:84%
I had a lot of ideas back
then and liked to walk around.

00:03:20.415 --> 00:03:24.930 align:middle line:84%
The thump was mystery,
a ball against the wall.

00:03:24.930 --> 00:03:29.970 align:middle line:84%
And aftermath, after
the host cleaned you up,

00:03:29.970 --> 00:03:32.510 align:middle line:90%
a scoreless game."

00:03:32.510 --> 00:03:33.029 align:middle line:90%