WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.932 align:middle line:84% OK, another one of those stories my friend told me. 00:00:02.932 --> 00:00:04.890 align:middle line:84% You know how you're never supposed to say that? 00:00:04.890 --> 00:00:07.620 align:middle line:84% You're never supposed to say, this came from real life. 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:14.190 align:middle line:84% But it's funny, he's a concrete framer. 00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:20.920 align:middle line:84% And after he told me this story I-- 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:22.900 align:middle line:84% from the end, from the last gesture 00:00:22.900 --> 00:00:28.510 align:middle line:84% I wanted to write the poem for him, and around him. 00:00:28.510 --> 00:00:29.380 align:middle line:90% And I did. 00:00:29.380 --> 00:00:33.640 align:middle line:84% And then I thought, well, I don't want to show this to him. 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:36.010 align:middle line:84% I don't know if this is a good thing to show to him 00:00:36.010 --> 00:00:37.540 align:middle line:84% or not, because of what happened. 00:00:37.540 --> 00:00:40.150 align:middle line:90% 00:00:40.150 --> 00:00:43.510 align:middle line:84% And then when it came out and it's published in The Yale 00:00:43.510 --> 00:00:45.982 align:middle line:90% Review and I gave him a copy-- 00:00:45.982 --> 00:00:47.440 align:middle line:84% he would come to readings, and he'd 00:00:47.440 --> 00:00:49.690 align:middle line:84% say Sandra, read my poem, Sandra, read my poem, 00:00:49.690 --> 00:00:50.320 align:middle line:90% and I'd say-- 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:52.030 align:middle line:90% I feel-- I don't know, Michael. 00:00:52.030 --> 00:00:55.480 align:middle line:84% So I gave him a copy, and it was real interesting because-- 00:00:55.480 --> 00:00:57.520 align:middle line:84% you'll see why when you hear the story. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:02.980 align:middle line:84% He then had me order 25 copies which he gave to each person 00:01:02.980 --> 00:01:04.510 align:middle line:90% in his family. 00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:07.300 align:middle line:84% And I know when I was down in Brazil I 00:01:07.300 --> 00:01:09.400 align:middle line:84% heard people talk a lot more about the writer 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:14.940 align:middle line:84% as a cabinet maker, the person who kind of nails these things 00:01:14.940 --> 00:01:16.870 align:middle line:90% together, puts them together. 00:01:16.870 --> 00:01:20.220 align:middle line:84% And I think of this more in that context. 00:01:20.220 --> 00:01:22.500 align:middle line:90% "Michael's Wine." 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:24.300 align:middle line:84% Michael is a-- well, he's a winemaker. 00:01:24.300 --> 00:01:27.090 align:middle line:90% You'll guess that. 00:01:27.090 --> 00:01:29.160 align:middle line:90% "Winter again. 00:01:29.160 --> 00:01:31.920 align:middle line:84% And we want it to be the same nocturnal rocking 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.790 align:middle line:84% watching the cedar spit and sketch its leafy flames, 00:01:35.790 --> 00:01:41.570 align:middle line:84% our rooms steamy with garlic and greasy harvest stew. 00:01:41.570 --> 00:01:45.440 align:middle line:84% Outside the frosted windows claw marks high on yellow pine, 00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:51.030 align:middle line:84% Venus brilliant in the sky, the whole valley a glare of ice. 00:01:51.030 --> 00:01:52.920 align:middle line:84% We gather in the kitchen to make jam 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:55.560 align:middle line:84% from damsons and blue Italian prunes, 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.020 align:middle line:84% the last fruit of the orchard sweetest 00:01:58.020 --> 00:02:01.020 align:middle line:84% after frost, frothy bushels of them steeping 00:02:01.020 --> 00:02:03.630 align:middle line:90% in flecked enamel pots. 00:02:03.630 --> 00:02:08.190 align:middle line:84% Michael, our neighbor, decants black cherry wine, fruit 00:02:08.190 --> 00:02:13.050 align:middle line:84% he ground two years ago, bound with sugar then racked 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:16.890 align:middle line:84% and racked again, it's young and dry. 00:02:16.890 --> 00:02:19.560 align:middle line:90% We toast ourselves, our safety. 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:24.610 align:middle line:84% Time, the branded savory of late November. 00:02:24.610 --> 00:02:27.430 align:middle line:84% 'I killed a man this day last year,' says Michael, 00:02:27.430 --> 00:02:29.950 align:middle line:84% 'while you were away coming home from town alone. 00:02:29.950 --> 00:02:32.530 align:middle line:84% You know the place in Lolo where the road curves, 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:35.050 align:middle line:84% where the herd of horses got loose New Year's Eve? 00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:39.620 align:middle line:84% Skidded around white-eyed, cars sliding into them? 00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:42.740 align:middle line:84% I didn't see the man until my windshield broke. 00:02:42.740 --> 00:02:44.990 align:middle line:90% Could have been any one of us. 00:02:44.990 --> 00:02:50.270 align:middle line:84% 29 years old, half drunk, half frozen, red and black hunting 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:51.840 align:middle line:90% jacket. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:54.160 align:middle line:90% Lucky I was sober.' 00:02:54.160 --> 00:02:57.310 align:middle line:84% We stand there plum stained as Michael's face fractures 00:02:57.310 --> 00:02:58.510 align:middle line:90% into tics and lines. 00:02:58.510 --> 00:03:00.160 align:middle line:90% He strokes his wine beard. 00:03:00.160 --> 00:03:03.550 align:middle line:84% Michael, with no family and gentle framer's hands, 00:03:03.550 --> 00:03:07.180 align:middle line:84% tilts the bottle and pours a round as if to toast. 00:03:07.180 --> 00:03:12.250 align:middle line:84% 'It was so cold,' he says, 'that when it was over,' he swirls 00:03:12.250 --> 00:03:14.245 align:middle line:84% the distilled cherries under the green lamp, 00:03:14.245 --> 00:03:18.010 align:middle line:84% 'there was less blood on the pavement than you see this 00:03:18.010 --> 00:03:20.520 align:middle line:90% moment in my glass.'"