WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 align:middle line:84% So I pop all over the place in history from the '40s and '30s. 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:05.010 align:middle line:90% The '50s. 00:00:05.010 --> 00:00:09.300 align:middle line:84% Sometimes, I even show up in the poem in my 13-year-old 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:10.350 align:middle line:90% or younger guys. 00:00:10.350 --> 00:00:13.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.530 --> 00:00:15.617 align:middle line:84% And then I have these other characters. 00:00:15.617 --> 00:00:16.950 align:middle line:90% So I have actual family figures. 00:00:16.950 --> 00:00:18.325 align:middle line:84% And then I have this larger sense 00:00:18.325 --> 00:00:22.380 align:middle line:84% of family in terms of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. 00:00:22.380 --> 00:00:24.660 align:middle line:84% And not always sort of heroes of that sort 00:00:24.660 --> 00:00:26.398 align:middle line:90% of unquestionable magnitude. 00:00:26.398 --> 00:00:27.690 align:middle line:90% I've also got people you learn. 00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:32.100 align:middle line:84% Other kinds of [INAUDIBLE] from like OJ Simpson, the boxer Jack 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:32.610 align:middle line:90% Johnson. 00:00:32.610 --> 00:00:33.460 align:middle line:90% I box now. 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:36.030 align:middle line:90% So. 00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:39.420 align:middle line:84% And then crazy things that have happened to me in my life. 00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:40.837 align:middle line:90% I was in England. 00:00:40.837 --> 00:00:42.420 align:middle line:84% I used to spend my summers in England. 00:00:42.420 --> 00:00:44.010 align:middle line:84% And I was there, one time you are going to drive 00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:45.260 align:middle line:90% on the other side of the road. 00:00:45.260 --> 00:00:47.520 align:middle line:84% And this is not so good for those of us 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:48.720 align:middle line:90% from America and Europe. 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:50.560 align:middle line:90% We forget what to do. 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:54.570 align:middle line:84% And so, I happened immediately upon this mishap 00:00:54.570 --> 00:00:57.180 align:middle line:84% that had just happened with the bus and an Italian tourist. 00:00:57.180 --> 00:00:59.635 align:middle line:84% And as we were walking away, my friend and I 00:00:59.635 --> 00:01:00.510 align:middle line:90% were kind of stunned. 00:01:00.510 --> 00:01:03.270 align:middle line:84% When she turns to me and she says, 'you're the poet, 00:01:03.270 --> 00:01:05.850 align:middle line:84% you have to write something about this.' 00:01:05.850 --> 00:01:07.230 align:middle line:90% Just like a double-dog dare. 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.200 align:middle line:90% 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.770 align:middle line:90% So eventually, I-- 00:01:13.770 --> 00:01:16.410 align:middle line:90% "Requiem". 00:01:16.410 --> 00:01:23.040 align:middle line:84% "Sing the mass-- light upon me washing words now 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:23.775 align:middle line:90% that I am gone. 00:01:23.775 --> 00:01:26.420 align:middle line:90% 00:01:26.420 --> 00:01:30.740 align:middle line:84% The sky was a hot, blue sheet the summer breeze 00:01:30.740 --> 00:01:34.580 align:middle line:90% fanned out and over the town. 00:01:34.580 --> 00:01:38.240 align:middle line:84% I could have lived forever under that sky. 00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:42.020 align:middle line:84% Forgetting where I was, I looked left, not right, 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:44.720 align:middle line:84% crossed into a street and stepped in front 00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:48.110 align:middle line:90% of the bus that ended me. 00:01:48.110 --> 00:01:51.960 align:middle line:84% Will you believe me when I tell you it was beautiful-- 00:01:51.960 --> 00:01:56.210 align:middle line:84% my left leg turned to uselessness and my right shoe 00:01:56.210 --> 00:01:58.520 align:middle line:84% flung some distance down the road? 00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:03.260 align:middle line:84% Will you believe me when I tell you I had never been so in love 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:10.340 align:middle line:84% with anyone as I was, then, with everyone I saw? 00:02:10.340 --> 00:02:15.560 align:middle line:84% The way an age-worn man held his wife's shaking arm, 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:18.920 align:middle line:84% supporting the weight that seemed to sing 00:02:18.920 --> 00:02:22.370 align:middle line:90% from the heart she clutched. 00:02:22.370 --> 00:02:26.480 align:middle line:84% Knowing her eyes embraced the pile that was me, 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:31.130 align:middle line:84% he guided her sacked body through the crowd. 00:02:31.130 --> 00:02:34.040 align:middle line:84% And the way one woman began a fast the moment 00:02:34.040 --> 00:02:36.170 align:middle line:90% she looked under the wheel. 00:02:36.170 --> 00:02:39.980 align:middle line:90% I saw her swear off decadence. 00:02:39.980 --> 00:02:42.980 align:middle line:90% I saw her start to pray. 00:02:42.980 --> 00:02:47.060 align:middle line:84% You see, I was so beautiful the woman sent 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:50.870 align:middle line:84% to clean the street used words like police tape 00:02:50.870 --> 00:02:54.710 align:middle line:84% to keep back a young boy seconds before he 00:02:54.710 --> 00:02:57.950 align:middle line:90% rounded the grisly bumper. 00:02:57.950 --> 00:03:03.530 align:middle line:84% The woman who cordoned the area feared my memory would fly him 00:03:03.530 --> 00:03:09.590 align:middle line:84% through the world on pinions of passion much as, 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:18.020 align:middle line:84% later, the sight of my awful beauty pulled her down to tears 00:03:18.020 --> 00:03:22.190 align:middle line:84% when she pooled my blood with water 00:03:22.190 --> 00:03:30.150 align:middle line:84% and swiftly, swiftly washed by stains away. 00:03:30.150 --> 00:03:31.000 align:middle line:90%