WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.690 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.690 --> 00:00:08.470 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read a few poems from section 2 as well. 00:00:08.470 --> 00:00:11.860 align:middle line:84% Excuse me for looking at my watch, 00:00:11.860 --> 00:00:16.900 align:middle line:84% I'm just mindful of not running over into my new friends' 00:00:16.900 --> 00:00:18.160 align:middle line:90% reading time as well. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.670 align:middle line:84% But I want to read a poem called "Club Las Palmas." 00:00:21.670 --> 00:00:24.250 align:middle line:84% And the reason I want to read this particular poem 00:00:24.250 --> 00:00:27.100 align:middle line:84% is because the kernel of this poem I wrote while I was here 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:30.310 align:middle line:90% at the University of Arizona. 00:00:30.310 --> 00:00:32.560 align:middle line:90% "Club Las Palmas." 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.830 align:middle line:84% "Open vats of red vinegar fermented outside-- 00:00:35.830 --> 00:00:40.570 align:middle line:84% 108 degrees of Del Sol heat and black asphalt. 00:00:40.570 --> 00:00:43.690 align:middle line:84% Guillermo and I choked on the vinegar's vapor as we 00:00:43.690 --> 00:00:47.920 align:middle line:84% threw cardboard boxes, still ripe with scraps of guts, 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:49.630 align:middle line:90% into the dumpster. 00:00:49.630 --> 00:00:53.260 align:middle line:84% Pig blood poured from the boxes, ran under my smock 00:00:53.260 --> 00:00:54.620 align:middle line:90% and down my skin. 00:00:54.620 --> 00:00:57.610 align:middle line:84% 'This is no way to live,' I told Guillermo. 00:00:57.610 --> 00:00:59.980 align:middle line:84% Guillermo dipped his hand into a box lined 00:00:59.980 --> 00:01:03.040 align:middle line:84% with wax, used his hand like a wooden ladle, 00:01:03.040 --> 00:01:07.330 align:middle line:84% filled his palm with warm blood, and he held it very still 00:01:07.330 --> 00:01:10.750 align:middle line:84% as if blood might reveal lost memory or a life that he 00:01:10.750 --> 00:01:12.540 align:middle line:90% had yet to live. 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:14.520 align:middle line:90% At noon, we ate lunch. 00:01:14.520 --> 00:01:18.180 align:middle line:84% Flies, maddened by raw meat, stuck to our skin 00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:20.670 align:middle line:84% and dizzied the air, but I still heard, 00:01:20.670 --> 00:01:24.060 align:middle line:84% splitting industrial Del Sol, the freeway where 00:01:24.060 --> 00:01:25.830 align:middle line:90% I wanted to be. 00:01:25.830 --> 00:01:28.290 align:middle line:84% I wanted an age too young to remember, 00:01:28.290 --> 00:01:30.660 align:middle line:84% when fog settled across the Valley 00:01:30.660 --> 00:01:34.590 align:middle line:84% and my grandfather, who drove trucks for Ringsby Rocket, 00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:38.070 align:middle line:84% passed by on the 99 and took the Jensen off-ramp 00:01:38.070 --> 00:01:41.940 align:middle line:90% to check in his emptied rig. 00:01:41.940 --> 00:01:45.600 align:middle line:84% At home, he put his soft-bristled wooden brush 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:48.900 align:middle line:84% beside the towel smelling of shower and shave, 00:01:48.900 --> 00:01:52.710 align:middle line:84% and he sat to eat nopales and chicken my grandmother 00:01:52.710 --> 00:01:54.630 align:middle line:90% sweetened with red chili sauce. 00:01:54.630 --> 00:01:58.260 align:middle line:84% He slipped into the black silk-lined coat of his best 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:01.680 align:middle line:84% black suit, and opened the black case of his trumpet, 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:04.230 align:middle line:84% and after each valve was oiled, and 00:02:04.230 --> 00:02:07.200 align:middle line:84% after the floral-carved bell was polished, 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:11.490 align:middle line:84% we drove to Club Las Palmas, and Abraham's Latin Combo 00:02:11.490 --> 00:02:13.680 align:middle line:90% began to tune. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:17.250 align:middle line:84% At Galdini Sausage, lunch was over. 00:02:17.250 --> 00:02:19.770 align:middle line:84% Guillermo fixed his collar with dignity, 00:02:19.770 --> 00:02:22.950 align:middle line:84% and he undid his belt and his pants with dignity, 00:02:22.950 --> 00:02:24.870 align:middle line:84% and he pulled out his shirt, and he 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:27.540 align:middle line:84% pointed at the rope-thick purple scar 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:30.120 align:middle line:84% sagging hip to hip below his belly 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:32.580 align:middle line:84% where he once cut himself open to let out 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:35.070 align:middle line:90% the life he did not want. 00:02:35.070 --> 00:02:39.270 align:middle line:84% 'It is better to work,' he said, and tucked in his shirt. 00:02:39.270 --> 00:02:42.300 align:middle line:84% Have you seen a man give himself to this place? 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:45.150 align:middle line:84% Guillermo and I started a palette of Sweet. 00:02:45.150 --> 00:02:48.180 align:middle line:84% We ground shoulder and cartons of fat. 00:02:48.180 --> 00:02:50.850 align:middle line:84% We added molasses, sugar, and anise, 00:02:50.850 --> 00:02:53.310 align:middle line:84% then sank in beyond knuckle and elbow, 00:02:53.310 --> 00:02:55.910 align:middle line:90% and pushed it all through." 00:02:55.910 --> 00:02:57.000 align:middle line:90%