WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.019 align:middle line:84%
I would like to
read one more poem.

00:00:04.019 --> 00:00:06.840 align:middle line:84%
And the poem that
I'm going to read

00:00:06.840 --> 00:00:12.300 align:middle line:84%
is called "Encarnación,"
which is a very important poem

00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:18.180 align:middle line:84%
in this book because I wanted to
having their reprieve from all

00:00:18.180 --> 00:00:22.830 align:middle line:84%
the grinding of the
sausage on a daily basis.

00:00:22.830 --> 00:00:26.970 align:middle line:84%
Encarnación means
is like incarnation.

00:00:26.970 --> 00:00:29.100 align:middle line:90%
Encarnación.

00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:30.780 align:middle line:84%
And with this
being my last poem,

00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:32.640 align:middle line:84%
I would like to say
again, thank you

00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.100 align:middle line:84%
to the University of
Arizona Poetry Center

00:00:35.100 --> 00:00:38.370 align:middle line:84%
and thank you for being
here this evening.

00:00:38.370 --> 00:00:41.670 align:middle line:84%
I've had a wonderful time me
and my esteemed colleagues.

00:00:41.670 --> 00:00:44.940 align:middle line:84%
And also thank you to
the University of Arizona

00:00:44.940 --> 00:00:47.610 align:middle line:84%
press and their
staff who published

00:00:47.610 --> 00:00:50.160 align:middle line:90%
my first book of poems.

00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:53.560 align:middle line:90%
"Encarnación."

00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:57.310 align:middle line:84%
"My friend and I sat on the
fine, white sands of the beach.

00:00:57.310 --> 00:01:01.960 align:middle line:84%
We built a small fire to roast
nopales and jalapeno peppers

00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:04.280 align:middle line:90%
from the farmers' market.

00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:08.210 align:middle line:84%
I had a stack of corn tortillas
wrapped in pink, butcher paper

00:01:08.210 --> 00:01:13.370 align:middle line:84%
and two ice cold bottles of
horchata in a Styrofoam cooler.

00:01:13.370 --> 00:01:16.310 align:middle line:84%
Guillermo roasted
the jalapeno peppers.

00:01:16.310 --> 00:01:19.430 align:middle line:84%
He talked about our
work at Gardini Sausage.

00:01:19.430 --> 00:01:22.430 align:middle line:84%
He most liked grinding
the meat, and he showed me

00:01:22.430 --> 00:01:26.300 align:middle line:84%
how to crack open the
frozen boxes across my knee

00:01:26.300 --> 00:01:30.980 align:middle line:84%
and to push the trim through
the grinder in one swift motion.

00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:33.860 align:middle line:84%
The nopales and the
jalapenos hissed.

00:01:33.860 --> 00:01:37.550 align:middle line:84%
Their roasted skins looked as
brittle as my scabbed knuckles

00:01:37.550 --> 00:01:40.040 align:middle line:84%
that cracked and burned
at work each time

00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:43.100 align:middle line:84%
I pushed pork
through the grinder.

00:01:43.100 --> 00:01:45.650 align:middle line:84%
Guillermo sliced the
nopales into strips

00:01:45.650 --> 00:01:47.930 align:middle line:90%
that we put into the tortillas.

00:01:47.930 --> 00:01:49.640 align:middle line:90%
I added jalapenos.

00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:53.690 align:middle line:84%
We opened the horchata, we
ate and the food was good.

00:01:53.690 --> 00:01:57.470 align:middle line:84%
A sweet jalapeno burn that
burned nothing but our hunger

00:01:57.470 --> 00:01:59.240 align:middle line:90%
and our talk of work.

00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:03.140 align:middle line:84%
I leaned back on my elbows
and stared at the blue waters

00:02:03.140 --> 00:02:04.790 align:middle line:90%
rolling gently.

00:02:04.790 --> 00:02:08.270 align:middle line:84%
I saw, only slowly at
first, the white cloak

00:02:08.270 --> 00:02:11.120 align:middle line:84%
of healing afloat on
the tops of the waves.

00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:12.950 align:middle line:84%
And that was when
I told Guillermo,

00:02:12.950 --> 00:02:16.250 align:middle line:84%
"Let's swim," but Guillermo
lay asleep in the sand.

00:02:16.250 --> 00:02:19.250 align:middle line:84%
I stood, unbuttoned
my guayabera,

00:02:19.250 --> 00:02:23.720 align:middle line:84%
took off my boots, jeans,
socks and charged the sea.

00:02:23.720 --> 00:02:26.930 align:middle line:84%
But the sea, as if to
make me prove my faith,

00:02:26.930 --> 00:02:31.160 align:middle line:84%
knocked me down and I breathed,
lifted my head from the sand

00:02:31.160 --> 00:02:34.580 align:middle line:90%
and then I was swimming.

00:02:34.580 --> 00:02:37.340 align:middle line:84%
The ocean touched my
tongue and sank deep

00:02:37.340 --> 00:02:39.920 align:middle line:84%
as the pork in the
paws of my skin.

00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:43.910 align:middle line:84%
I was alone between two
waves, afloat on my back

00:02:43.910 --> 00:02:45.680 align:middle line:90%
in the palm of the Pacific.

00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:48.650 align:middle line:84%
And for a moment, because
nothing else mattered,

00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:50.840 align:middle line:90%
I closed my eyes and listened.

00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:52.460 align:middle line:90%
Water under the birds.

00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:53.360 align:middle line:90%
The wind.

00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:56.150 align:middle line:84%
I heard myself breathe
and in my knuckles

00:02:56.150 --> 00:02:58.580 align:middle line:90%
I smelled only the salt."

00:02:58.580 --> 00:03:00.430 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:02.000 align:middle line:90%