WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.020 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.020 --> 00:00:04.800 align:middle line:84% This is called "To A Woman Whose House Burned Down." 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:07.680 align:middle line:84% And a lot of time passes in the poem. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:11.370 align:middle line:84% At first, I imagine the woman as a little girl, 00:00:11.370 --> 00:00:13.500 align:middle line:84% things in her life that led up to where she 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:15.330 align:middle line:90% was when her house burned down. 00:00:15.330 --> 00:00:19.800 align:middle line:84% And then there's a transition, which hopefully you 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.050 align:middle line:90% will be able to catch. 00:00:22.050 --> 00:00:25.230 align:middle line:84% "To A Woman Whose House Burned Down." 00:00:25.230 --> 00:00:28.590 align:middle line:84% Somewhere, the sun rose and people saw it. 00:00:28.590 --> 00:00:32.700 align:middle line:84% Children in other places peered from the covers at dawn, 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:36.630 align:middle line:84% and a soft orange light filled the threatening corners 00:00:36.630 --> 00:00:38.260 align:middle line:90% of their dreams. 00:00:38.260 --> 00:00:42.240 align:middle line:84% But you woke to some blurred voice of water or a man 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:44.340 align:middle line:90% speaking to stone. 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:47.460 align:middle line:84% You did what you were told, you put on your coat, 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:50.790 align:middle line:84% you smoked your fingers all the way up Prospect Avenue, 00:00:50.790 --> 00:00:54.750 align:middle line:84% until the red bricks of school gathered out of the fog, 00:00:54.750 --> 00:00:57.990 align:middle line:84% the fence gates closed, and you put your little hand 00:00:57.990 --> 00:01:02.160 align:middle line:84% on your flat chest and repeated the meaningless words. 00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:05.370 align:middle line:84% I pledge allegiance to the fear of emptiness, 00:01:05.370 --> 00:01:09.420 align:middle line:84% and to the potential for sorrow of my unformed breast, 00:01:09.420 --> 00:01:13.200 align:middle line:84% and to the Republic of my loneliness, one small nation 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:17.760 align:middle line:84% of warring desires, under a flag of stars and blood 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:19.140 align:middle line:90% and not enough money. 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:22.020 align:middle line:90% And so on and so on. 00:01:22.020 --> 00:01:24.480 align:middle line:84% I don't know how it was, but in no time 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.050 align:middle line:84% you were home, having dinner with your husband, 00:01:28.050 --> 00:01:31.890 align:middle line:84% and the kids in the house turning to moss that he 00:01:31.890 --> 00:01:34.500 align:middle line:90% left you when he left. 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:39.180 align:middle line:84% Then, it was bad wiring they said, and you were standing 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:43.020 align:middle line:84% a little ways back in the woods, almost naked, 00:01:43.020 --> 00:01:46.770 align:middle line:84% with the flames reflected in your still eyes, 00:01:46.770 --> 00:01:50.500 align:middle line:84% long before the sun rose and people saw it. 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:51.000 align:middle line:90%