Thank you very much.
I like the Kirk aspect of that anagram
because I'm a big Star Trek fan.
So any time we can talk about Kirk is a good time for me.
So I'll read from three--
first of all, thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you, so much, to the Poetry Center.
Thank you, Tyler, Patri, Diana, Ander.
Thank you so much for welcoming me, here, to Tucson.
I didn't know anything about the University of Arizona, the MFA
program, or the Poetry Center until a good friend of mine,
from undergrad, Morgan Schuldt, actually,
was admitted here for the MFA.
And, as y'all know, he made a life and a wonderful career
as a poet here before passing away several years ago now.
So the last time that I was standing in this room
was, actually, for his memorial.
So I read one of his poems from the time
that we knew each other back at the University of Virginia,
and I met many of his friends and colleagues and teachers
here.
And that was my introduction to Tucson.
It was my introduction to the Poetry Center.
And I was just so moved by the wonderful community
that Morgan built here and that all the people around him made.
This is a place where things are--
wonderful things are-- created.
So thank you for welcoming me back to read from my own work.
"Contagion."
"I wake up in my body, and it's worse than a war zone.
My smoke-cloud of blood.
My hair grenade-- tick, tick, boom.
It's worse than a war zone when I cruise past your brunch--
just to get bread, just ordering juice.
I open my mouth, and the war rolls out dense as a foghorn.
I can't keep from squeezing my skull.
I keep time-traveling back to the noon of my birth.
Worse than a war zone that Sunday, that night, when
I wept in the war of myself.
That's the first war I knew.
It was worse than a war."