WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.200 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:06.180 align:middle line:84%
Nearby, is in a section
of the fortress,

00:00:06.180 --> 00:00:08.070 align:middle line:90%
there was another little child--

00:00:08.070 --> 00:00:11.730 align:middle line:84%
somewhat older, a
few years older--

00:00:11.730 --> 00:00:19.660 align:middle line:90%
hideously deformed and stupid.

00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:22.440 align:middle line:90%
I mean, idiotic, really.

00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:25.330 align:middle line:84%
Held all day long
by a little sister--

00:00:25.330 --> 00:00:28.590 align:middle line:84%
a big sister of
12 years old, say,

00:00:28.590 --> 00:00:31.290 align:middle line:90%
who was beautiful like a saint.

00:00:31.290 --> 00:00:36.445 align:middle line:84%
And spent all her time
nursing this little monster.

00:00:36.445 --> 00:00:39.300 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:43.890 align:middle line:90%
And I taught it one trick--

00:00:43.890 --> 00:00:47.220 align:middle line:90%
to greet passers by--

00:00:47.220 --> 00:00:52.260 align:middle line:84%
goats, persons,
geese-- anything,

00:00:52.260 --> 00:00:57.235 align:middle line:84%
with the one gesture of
ciao to our Italian gesture

00:00:57.235 --> 00:00:57.735 align:middle line:90%
of greeting.

00:00:57.735 --> 00:01:01.620 align:middle line:90%


00:01:01.620 --> 00:01:05.850 align:middle line:84%
And these two children
in the same spot

00:01:05.850 --> 00:01:11.130 align:middle line:90%
make the poem as I see it.

00:01:11.130 --> 00:01:12.570 align:middle line:90%
The child next door.

00:01:12.570 --> 00:01:15.660 align:middle line:90%


00:01:15.660 --> 00:01:20.460 align:middle line:84%
The child next door is
defective, because the mother--

00:01:20.460 --> 00:01:24.990 align:middle line:84%
seven brats already in
that prelude of dirt--

00:01:24.990 --> 00:01:28.600 align:middle line:84%
took a pill or did
something to herself

00:01:28.600 --> 00:01:30.300 align:middle line:90%
she thought would not hurt.

00:01:30.300 --> 00:01:32.400 align:middle line:90%
But it did.

00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:34.530 align:middle line:90%
And no good.

00:01:34.530 --> 00:01:36.810 align:middle line:84%
For there came this
monstrous other.

00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:39.540 align:middle line:90%


00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:45.720 align:middle line:84%
The sister is 12, is
beautiful, like a saint.

00:01:45.720 --> 00:01:54.660 align:middle line:84%
She sits with the monster all
day with pure love, calm eyes.

00:01:54.660 --> 00:02:01.800 align:middle line:84%
Has taught the trick to
make ciao, Italian wise.

00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:05.760 align:middle line:84%
It crooks hand in
that greeting, she

00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:10.949 align:middle line:90%
smiles her smile without taint.

00:02:10.949 --> 00:02:18.600 align:middle line:84%
I pass, and her triptych
beauty and joy stir hate.

00:02:18.600 --> 00:02:22.680 align:middle line:90%
Is it hate in my heart?

00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:26.070 align:middle line:84%
Fool, doesn't she know
that the process is not

00:02:26.070 --> 00:02:32.100 align:middle line:84%
that joyous or simple to bless
or unbless the malfeasance

00:02:32.100 --> 00:02:35.250 align:middle line:90%
of nature or the filth of fate?

00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:38.000 align:middle line:90%


00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:44.090 align:middle line:84%
Can it bind or lose that
beauty in that kind--

00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:47.300 align:middle line:90%
beauty of benediction?

00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:51.230 align:middle line:84%
We must trust our
hope to prevail.

00:02:51.230 --> 00:02:59.810 align:middle line:84%
That heart-joy in beauty be
wisdom before beauty fail

00:02:59.810 --> 00:03:06.440 align:middle line:84%
and be gathered like air in
the rock of the world's wind.

00:03:06.440 --> 00:03:09.690 align:middle line:90%


00:03:09.690 --> 00:03:17.220 align:middle line:84%
I think of your goldness,
of joy of the other child,

00:03:17.220 --> 00:03:24.510 align:middle line:84%
and how empires grind,
stars are hurled.

00:03:24.510 --> 00:03:32.280 align:middle line:84%
I smile stiff, saying ciao,
saying ciao, and think,

00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:34.760 align:middle line:90%
this is the world.

00:03:34.760 --> 00:03:36.347 align:middle line:90%