WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.290 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.290 --> 00:00:02.040 align:middle line:84% I'm mostly going to be reading new things, 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:05.640 align:middle line:84% and then I think I'll try and hit a couple poems that we 00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:07.140 align:middle line:90% talked about in the class, so. 00:00:07.140 --> 00:00:09.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:12.930 align:middle line:84% But these are part of my second book. 00:00:12.930 --> 00:00:15.480 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:18.780 align:middle line:84% I used to go to a crane sanctuary in Kearney, Nebraska 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:22.630 align:middle line:84% to watch the sandhill cranes migrate. 00:00:22.630 --> 00:00:25.530 align:middle line:84% And so it was a little bit like a pilgrimage because, you know, 00:00:25.530 --> 00:00:28.050 align:middle line:84% I had to drive to Las Vegas to get on the plane, 00:00:28.050 --> 00:00:29.850 align:middle line:84% and then we had to fly into Kearney, which 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:32.100 align:middle line:84% is this little-- you had to fly in a little tiny plane 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:35.400 align:middle line:84% to Kearney, and it seemed like it took forever to get there. 00:00:35.400 --> 00:00:39.270 align:middle line:84% And then, after I did that for three years, one of my elders 00:00:39.270 --> 00:00:42.240 align:middle line:84% told me that you can actually just go to Willcox, Arizona, 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:44.100 align:middle line:90% to see that happen. 00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:46.350 align:middle line:90% So nobody told me that. 00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:49.470 align:middle line:84% So you know, I was young, I was looking for something 00:00:49.470 --> 00:00:50.670 align:middle line:90% to pilgrimage towards. 00:00:50.670 --> 00:00:53.280 align:middle line:90% 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:57.600 align:middle line:84% "Cranes, Mafiosos, and a Polaroid Camera." 00:00:57.600 --> 00:00:59.340 align:middle line:84% "I had a few days left of my stay 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:01.890 align:middle line:84% at the crane sanctuary in Kearney, Nebraska, 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:03.360 align:middle line:90% when my brother called. 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:05.730 align:middle line:90% It was 3:24 AM. 00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:08.640 align:middle line:84% It's me, he said, It's your brother. 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.820 align:middle line:84% He had taken apart another Polaroid camera 00:01:11.820 --> 00:01:15.630 align:middle line:84% and needed me to explain how to put it back together. 00:01:15.630 --> 00:01:19.770 align:middle line:84% His voice was a snare drum, knocking and quick. 00:01:19.770 --> 00:01:21.510 align:middle line:90% He was crying. 00:01:21.510 --> 00:01:23.400 align:middle line:84% I didn't want to wake the other visitors, 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.800 align:middle line:84% and I knew he'd keep calling, hour after hour, 00:01:26.800 --> 00:01:30.180 align:middle line:84% day after day, lifetime after a miserable 00:01:30.180 --> 00:01:32.670 align:middle line:90% lifetime, until I answered. 00:01:32.670 --> 00:01:34.050 align:middle line:90% I slid out of bed. 00:01:34.050 --> 00:01:35.760 align:middle line:90% Just tell me what to do. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:38.490 align:middle line:90% You know what to do, he pleaded. 00:01:38.490 --> 00:01:41.220 align:middle line:84% I should know how to help my brother by now. 00:01:41.220 --> 00:01:45.450 align:middle line:84% He and I have had this exact conversation before-- 00:01:45.450 --> 00:01:48.390 align:middle line:84% if I love him, if I really love him, 00:01:48.390 --> 00:01:53.010 align:middle line:84% why haven't I learned to reassemble a Polaroid camera? 00:01:53.010 --> 00:01:56.280 align:middle line:84% Instead, I told him about the sandhill cranes, 00:01:56.280 --> 00:02:00.780 align:middle line:84% the way they dance-- moving into and giving way to one another, 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:04.410 align:middle line:84% bowing down, cresting and collapsing their wings, 00:02:04.410 --> 00:02:08.580 align:middle line:84% necks and shoulders silver curls of smoky rhythm-- 00:02:08.580 --> 00:02:10.259 align:middle line:90% but he didn't believe me. 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:13.470 align:middle line:84% My brother believes the mafia placed a transmitter deep 00:02:13.470 --> 00:02:15.930 align:middle line:84% within his Polaroid camera, but he can't 00:02:15.930 --> 00:02:18.150 align:middle line:90% believe in dancing cranes. 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:19.710 align:middle line:90% You think this is a joke? 00:02:19.710 --> 00:02:20.580 align:middle line:90% he whispers. 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:23.910 align:middle line:84% These are fucking Mafiosos I'm talking about. 00:02:23.910 --> 00:02:25.590 align:middle line:90% You're probably next. 00:02:25.590 --> 00:02:27.600 align:middle line:90% He hung up on me. 00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:30.210 align:middle line:84% When the light went dead, I caught my reflection 00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:31.740 align:middle line:90% in the sliding glass door. 00:02:31.740 --> 00:02:34.860 align:middle line:84% I was standing in a strange kitchen, in front of a sink, 00:02:34.860 --> 00:02:36.090 align:middle line:90% in my underwear. 00:02:36.090 --> 00:02:38.580 align:middle line:84% I have skinny legs and big feet-- 00:02:38.580 --> 00:02:40.740 align:middle line:90% I resemble a crane. 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:43.800 align:middle line:84% That dawn, I aimed my digital camera at the sky until 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:46.890 align:middle line:84% the last of an island of late-rising cranes lifted 00:02:46.890 --> 00:02:48.430 align:middle line:90% into the metallic air-- 00:02:48.430 --> 00:02:51.420 align:middle line:84% I couldn't take my eyes from the barrel of lens, 00:02:51.420 --> 00:02:55.080 align:middle line:84% my finger, fast trigger against the black skeleton 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:56.220 align:middle line:90% of the camera. 00:02:56.220 --> 00:02:58.050 align:middle line:84% I wondered what it would look like cracked 00:02:58.050 --> 00:03:01.680 align:middle line:84% open to its upside-down mirrors and shiny levers, 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:05.520 align:middle line:84% how many screws there were, how many lantern-lit cranes might 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.190 align:middle line:90% come unfurling out of that cage. 00:03:08.190 --> 00:03:11.340 align:middle line:84% I wondered what I would look like if the darkened chambers 00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:13.140 align:middle line:90% of my body were unlocked. 00:03:13.140 --> 00:03:16.500 align:middle line:84% What streams of light might escape me and reveal 00:03:16.500 --> 00:03:19.290 align:middle line:84% about the things I collect and hide, 00:03:19.290 --> 00:03:23.160 align:middle line:84% and is there a difference between aperture and wound. 00:03:23.160 --> 00:03:25.230 align:middle line:84% Mostly, I wondered where my brother 00:03:25.230 --> 00:03:28.500 align:middle line:84% keeps getting those goddamned Polaroid cameras." 00:03:28.500 --> 00:03:29.000 align:middle line:90%