WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.790 align:middle line:84% I think what I would like to do is 00:00:02.790 --> 00:00:05.070 align:middle line:84% I intended to read a different poem, 00:00:05.070 --> 00:00:10.500 align:middle line:84% but I feel like reading The Milky Way again, 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:14.160 align:middle line:84% since we were still recovering from Eddie Murphy. 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:18.000 align:middle line:84% And what can I say about it this time? 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:24.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:24.510 --> 00:00:26.291 align:middle line:90% When I was a bro, the-- 00:00:26.291 --> 00:00:27.764 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:27.764 --> 00:00:29.237 align:middle line:90% 00:00:29.237 --> 00:00:32.670 align:middle line:90% The one thing that I-- 00:00:32.670 --> 00:00:34.200 align:middle line:84% when I was reading the last poem, 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:36.990 align:middle line:84% reading the lines about lying far beneath whatever 00:00:36.990 --> 00:00:43.770 align:middle line:84% is going on, but unfortunate, it's not exactly an image 00:00:43.770 --> 00:00:47.820 align:middle line:84% but recollection to my mind that almost stalled me 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:49.575 align:middle line:84% in the poem but my wife and I were talking 00:00:49.575 --> 00:00:51.450 align:middle line:84% one night about where we wanted to be buried, 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:55.530 align:middle line:84% assuming we ever die, and I say, I 00:00:55.530 --> 00:00:58.330 align:middle line:90% want to be buried under a tree. 00:00:58.330 --> 00:01:00.330 align:middle line:84% She wanted to be buried under a shopping center. 00:01:00.330 --> 00:01:02.130 align:middle line:90% And I always remember that. 00:01:02.130 --> 00:01:05.994 align:middle line:84% Far beneath whatever is going on, you know. 00:01:05.994 --> 00:01:07.500 align:middle line:90% Under the boutique, right? 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:10.890 align:middle line:90% 00:01:10.890 --> 00:01:14.550 align:middle line:84% This poem, The Milky Way, reminds me of something 00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:16.590 align:middle line:84% that's talked about in the middle of the poem. 00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:18.480 align:middle line:84% When we first came down to Tucson, 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.640 align:middle line:84% my son, who's a juvenile diabetic, 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:23.760 align:middle line:90% came down with diabetes. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:26.520 align:middle line:84% And because he was misdiagnosed, he almost died. 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:31.950 align:middle line:84% He almost was not treated for it quickly enough. 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:36.090 align:middle line:84% What I'm reminded of by the lines about his playing 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:40.260 align:middle line:84% with the starship is the fact that when he was back 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:42.210 align:middle line:84% from the hospital for two or three days and we 00:01:42.210 --> 00:01:45.450 align:middle line:84% were still really keeping a wary eye on him, 00:01:45.450 --> 00:01:49.030 align:middle line:84% and he seemed a little pale and sickly and whatever, 00:01:49.030 --> 00:01:51.720 align:middle line:84% which is anything but now, the way 00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:55.050 align:middle line:84% that I knew that he was really fully recovered and would be OK 00:01:55.050 --> 00:02:02.390 align:middle line:84% was he had a toy McDonald's that we'd gotten somewhere in-- 00:02:02.390 --> 00:02:04.740 align:middle line:90% I think we got it Value Village. 00:02:04.740 --> 00:02:08.769 align:middle line:84% And he had all these little Star Wars figures, 00:02:08.769 --> 00:02:10.650 align:middle line:90% and he was three years old then. 00:02:10.650 --> 00:02:13.900 align:middle line:84% And he was playing in his room fairly loudly, 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:17.310 align:middle line:84% so I thought he was probably OK or better or whatever. 00:02:17.310 --> 00:02:20.340 align:middle line:84% I was listening closely to him, and Darth Vader came in. 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:22.350 align:middle line:84% All these guys are working at McDonald's, OK? 00:02:22.350 --> 00:02:27.540 align:middle line:84% You know, Lando Calrissian and Jabba the Hutt. 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:30.180 align:middle line:90% Nope, not then or whatever, OK. 00:02:30.180 --> 00:02:32.490 align:middle line:84% Darth Vader came into McDonald's and he's 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:34.230 align:middle line:90% acting out these roles, OK? 00:02:34.230 --> 00:02:39.030 align:middle line:84% Darth Vader came into McDonald's and ordered a cheeseburger. 00:02:39.030 --> 00:02:41.940 align:middle line:84% They said they were out of them, and he wiped the place out 00:02:41.940 --> 00:02:43.953 align:middle line:90% completely. 00:02:43.953 --> 00:02:45.120 align:middle line:90% And I knew Bodie was aright. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:52.280 align:middle line:90% 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:55.070 align:middle line:84% The other thing it reminds me of, which is inconsequential, 00:02:55.070 --> 00:02:57.830 align:middle line:90% is when I was a boy-- 00:02:57.830 --> 00:02:59.360 align:middle line:84% some things are made up in the poem. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:02.360 align:middle line:84% I had to make up a father better than my own in the poem. 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:04.790 align:middle line:84% But my grandfather, who I did greatly love 00:03:04.790 --> 00:03:07.070 align:middle line:84% and who I lived with for a time when I was young, 00:03:07.070 --> 00:03:11.180 align:middle line:84% with my grandparents, told me that at twilight there 00:03:11.180 --> 00:03:13.580 align:middle line:84% used to be bats that flew around over our house. 00:03:13.580 --> 00:03:18.290 align:middle line:84% And he told me that if I took his felt hat 00:03:18.290 --> 00:03:20.420 align:middle line:84% and threw it up into the air, I'd 00:03:20.420 --> 00:03:22.280 align:middle line:84% catch a bat if they flew into it. 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:27.110 align:middle line:84% And I spent hours and hours and hours doing that. 00:03:27.110 --> 00:03:28.310 align:middle line:90% Early television. 00:03:28.310 --> 00:03:32.850 align:middle line:90% 00:03:32.850 --> 00:03:35.490 align:middle line:84% When I was a boy, the Milky Way floated just 00:03:35.490 --> 00:03:37.620 align:middle line:84% over the city of Boston, so I was 00:03:37.620 --> 00:03:40.440 align:middle line:84% lucky to live in that place, that house, where 00:03:40.440 --> 00:03:44.310 align:middle line:84% my father allowed that his face, and like the moon went out, 00:03:44.310 --> 00:03:48.630 align:middle line:84% came back, walking winter nights beneath the Milky Way. 00:03:48.630 --> 00:03:53.910 align:middle line:84% Few thoughts, few fears, a way of sleeping through the night. 00:03:53.910 --> 00:03:56.940 align:middle line:84% When my son lay sewn to the sheets, adrift 00:03:56.940 --> 00:04:00.720 align:middle line:84% in his diabetic coma among the blown seductive stars, 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:03.120 align:middle line:84% I could not think of anything to say, 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.240 align:middle line:90% for he was not anywhere nearby. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:08.940 align:middle line:90% He said, Papa, and came back. 00:04:08.940 --> 00:04:14.070 align:middle line:84% Tonight in his play, he wipes out McDonald's. 00:04:14.070 --> 00:04:18.060 align:middle line:84% He captains a sleek starship toward the Milky Way. 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:20.550 align:middle line:84% When I was a boy, the city of Boston 00:04:20.550 --> 00:04:23.190 align:middle line:90% lay miles away within our sight. 00:04:23.190 --> 00:04:27.180 align:middle line:84% The evenings, we set our chairs upon the lawn and talked. 00:04:27.180 --> 00:04:30.960 align:middle line:84% Few thoughts, a way of watching until dark. 00:04:30.960 --> 00:04:34.260 align:middle line:84% Then, as our small wickers floated through the night, 00:04:34.260 --> 00:04:37.440 align:middle line:84% I wished I might be taken away to live forever 00:04:37.440 --> 00:04:41.597 align:middle line:84% in that distant city made holy of light. 00:04:41.597 --> 00:04:42.097 align:middle line:90%