WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.320 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.320 --> 00:00:03.345 align:middle line:84%
I promised to lighten
it up a little bit.

00:00:03.345 --> 00:00:06.420 align:middle line:90%


00:00:06.420 --> 00:00:08.430 align:middle line:84%
My mother used to
disappear when we

00:00:08.430 --> 00:00:11.790 align:middle line:84%
were children out somewhere
two or three minutes

00:00:11.790 --> 00:00:13.590 align:middle line:84%
and we'd run around
looking for her.

00:00:13.590 --> 00:00:17.250 align:middle line:84%
And then I realized,
when I became a mother

00:00:17.250 --> 00:00:19.650 align:middle line:84%
and I can see it
now with my daughter

00:00:19.650 --> 00:00:22.260 align:middle line:84%
as she is now a mother,
that sometimes you

00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:27.500 align:middle line:84%
just need to get away from
those kids just for a second.

00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:29.390 align:middle line:90%
She would go out in the garage.

00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:31.850 align:middle line:84%
Her mother went out
behind the garage.

00:00:31.850 --> 00:00:34.490 align:middle line:90%
And this poem is about that.

00:00:34.490 --> 00:00:37.010 align:middle line:90%
"Day Star."

00:00:37.010 --> 00:00:39.680 align:middle line:84%
She wanted a little
room for thinking,

00:00:39.680 --> 00:00:43.580 align:middle line:84%
but she saw diapers steaming
on the line, a doll slumped

00:00:43.580 --> 00:00:45.560 align:middle line:90%
behind the door.

00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:48.110 align:middle line:84%
So she loved the chair
behind the garage

00:00:48.110 --> 00:00:51.140 align:middle line:90%
to sit out the children's naps.

00:00:51.140 --> 00:00:53.990 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes there were
things to watch--

00:00:53.990 --> 00:00:59.090 align:middle line:84%
the pinched armor of a vanished
cricket, a floating maple leaf.

00:00:59.090 --> 00:01:01.310 align:middle line:84%
Other days she
stared until she was

00:01:01.310 --> 00:01:03.950 align:middle line:84%
assured when she
closed her eyes she'd

00:01:03.950 --> 00:01:07.370 align:middle line:90%
see only her own vivid blood.

00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:11.780 align:middle line:84%
She had an hour at best
before Liza appeared pouting

00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:13.880 align:middle line:90%
from the top of the stairs.

00:01:13.880 --> 00:01:18.530 align:middle line:84%
And just what was mother doing
out back with the field mice?

00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:22.070 align:middle line:90%
Why building a palace.

00:01:22.070 --> 00:01:25.820 align:middle line:84%
Later that night, when Thomas
rolled over and lurched

00:01:25.820 --> 00:01:28.100 align:middle line:84%
into her, she
would open her eyes

00:01:28.100 --> 00:01:30.440 align:middle line:84%
and think of the
place that was hers

00:01:30.440 --> 00:01:35.360 align:middle line:84%
for an hour where she
was nothing, pure nothing

00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:36.725 align:middle line:90%
in the middle of the day.

00:01:36.725 --> 00:01:39.580 align:middle line:90%


00:01:39.580 --> 00:01:40.810 align:middle line:90%
We've all been there, right?

00:01:40.810 --> 00:01:43.140 align:middle line:90%
We know that place.