WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.660 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.660 --> 00:00:01.980 align:middle line:90% I wanted to read-- 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:15.800 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.140 align:middle line:84% I have a lot of poems from the Bible. 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:19.190 align:middle line:90% I used to go a lot. 00:00:19.190 --> 00:00:22.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.950 --> 00:00:24.900 align:middle line:90% Oh, I'd like to read this. 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:27.390 align:middle line:84% And then, there are poems I would like to read sometimes, 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:32.640 align:middle line:84% and this, and then a series of poems about September 11th. 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:34.110 align:middle line:90% And then a last poem-- 00:00:34.110 --> 00:00:37.920 align:middle line:84% not a last poem, another later poem. 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:39.650 align:middle line:84% I haven't written my last poem yet. 00:00:39.650 --> 00:00:47.070 align:middle line:84% It's my poem [INAUDIBLE] This is called "To my Last Period." 00:00:47.070 --> 00:00:48.210 align:middle line:90% It's a poem that-- 00:00:48.210 --> 00:00:51.420 align:middle line:84% I always wanted to write poems for grown-ups. 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:53.250 align:middle line:84% And I have read this in lots of places, 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:56.838 align:middle line:84% and young men have said, what does that mean? 00:00:56.838 --> 00:00:59.130 align:middle line:84% I have a girlfriend, but I've gone to Catholic churches 00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:00.240 align:middle line:90% all my life. 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.570 align:middle line:84% And I didn't know that you could be like the lead in things. 00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:05.640 align:middle line:84% And the periods, like, they-- aren't they 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:07.500 align:middle line:90% always around somewhere? 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:11.760 align:middle line:84% Well, yeah, but-- if he didn't know about this, 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:14.730 align:middle line:84% it would be better if he did, so I talked to him about it. 00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:17.310 align:middle line:84% And we have been taught that this is the curse. 00:01:17.310 --> 00:01:18.390 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:01:18.390 --> 00:01:22.590 align:middle line:84% And I remember on Archie Bunker show one time, 00:01:22.590 --> 00:01:24.300 align:middle line:90% Edith was saying-- 00:01:24.300 --> 00:01:26.070 align:middle line:84% so they said something about the curse. 00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:27.960 align:middle line:84% And Edith said, my friend so-and-so 00:01:27.960 --> 00:01:29.730 align:middle line:84% who has so many children, she calls it 00:01:29.730 --> 00:01:34.420 align:middle line:84% the blessing, which I thought was really nice. 00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:38.220 align:middle line:90% Anyway, "To my Last Period." 00:01:38.220 --> 00:01:41.430 align:middle line:90% "Well, girl, goodbye. 00:01:41.430 --> 00:01:44.310 align:middle line:90% After 38 years-- 00:01:44.310 --> 00:01:49.770 align:middle line:84% 38 years, and you never arrived, splendid in your red dress, 00:01:49.770 --> 00:01:55.200 align:middle line:84% without trouble for me somewhere, somehow. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:56.970 align:middle line:90% Now it is done. 00:01:56.970 --> 00:01:59.730 align:middle line:84% And I feel just like your grandmothers who, 00:01:59.730 --> 00:02:03.090 align:middle line:84% after the hussy has gone, sit holding her photograph 00:02:03.090 --> 00:02:06.630 align:middle line:84% and sighing, wasn't she beautiful? 00:02:06.630 --> 00:02:08.670 align:middle line:90% Wasn't she beautiful?" 00:02:08.670 --> 00:02:11.415 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:11.415 --> 00:02:13.330 align:middle line:90% 00:02:13.330 --> 00:02:15.800 align:middle line:90% I didn't think so at the time. 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:18.000 align:middle line:90%