Many of my poems are quite long, so I
want to make sure that Farid gets up here, because you're
in for a treat tonight.
So this next poem--
well, quite long.
I'm only going to read an excerpt of it.
It doesn't really have any questions or any commentary.
It's just pure description.
And the poem is written in couplets.
It's really a list.
And even though my obsession with this book
was to ask a lot of questions, in this poem
I think the questions are probably implicit.
And they I hope that they say something
about our assumptions and our prejudices.
It's called "66 Windows."
"Woman with her hair held in a rough knot
by a red twist mopping, age 29.
Women with her hair held in a rough knot
by a red twist mopping, age 56.
Woman half-draped in a towel in a steamy bathroom, age 80.
Women half-draped in a towel in a steamy bathroom, age 25.
White female in police blotter, cropped hair, age 24,
scratches on face.
Black female in police blotter, cropped hair, age 24,
scratches on face.
Woman in a burqa at an embassy party in her 30s,
in the arms of a woman in her 30s in military uniform.
Applying mascara in bra and underpants in a brightly
lit apartment before dressing for dinner, age 31.
Applying mascara in bra and underpants in a brightly
lit apartment before dressing for dinner, age 67.
Begging, age 21.
Begging, age 81.
Woman in a cinched coat, age 24, jerking a white guy
behind the old bakery.
Woman in a cinched coat, age 44, jerking a white guy
behind the old bakery.
Man with downy hair, facial hair, in a sharp suit, age 40.
Woman with downy hair, facial hair, in a sharp suit, age 40.
Girl on crutches, 15.
Woman on crutches, 85.
Woman in a green nylon do-rag cleaning toilets
in an empty baseball stadium, 22.
Woman veiled in bare feet, 22.
Woman and sunglasses and margarita, 22.
Woman and sunglasses and margarita, 32.
Woman and sunglasses and margarita, 42.
Woman and sunglasses and margarita, 52.
Woman and sunglasses and margarita, 62.
Cook in a leather jacket, silk dress, and nose ring,
at a butcher shop, Paris, age 28.
Assistant professor in a leather jacket at a poetry reading, New
York, age 28.
Trust fund baby in a leather jacket at a cineplex, Tokyo,
age 38.
Bouncer in a leather jacket in a honky-tonk Austin, age 38.
Undocumented immigrant in a leather jacket, Los Angeles
International Airport, age 48.
Friend in a leather jacket in a hospital emergency room,
middle of nowhere, age 48.
Widow in a leather jacket at a railway station, Amsterdam,
age 58.
Ex-convicts in a leather jacket in a snowstorm, Taos, age 58.
Black nude on white bedding in a high-rise apartment,
age 36, reading.
White nude on white bedding in a mid-century modern, age 66,
writing."
That last one.
That would be me.