WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.510 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.510 --> 00:00:04.050 align:middle line:84%
And in a poem called
"Piccola Elegia," which

00:00:04.050 --> 00:00:08.220 align:middle line:84%
just means "little elegy,"
for a friend of mine

00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:11.620 align:middle line:84%
that I knew at the University
of Iowa named Nicky Goldman.

00:00:11.620 --> 00:00:13.395 align:middle line:90%
He died when he was 26.

00:00:13.395 --> 00:00:17.450 align:middle line:90%


00:00:17.450 --> 00:00:21.540 align:middle line:84%
At the end of the poem, the
image I'm trying to work with

00:00:21.540 --> 00:00:24.900 align:middle line:84%
is the Viking funeral, where
they put the boat on fire

00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:28.830 align:middle line:90%
and send it out to sea.

00:00:28.830 --> 00:00:31.140 align:middle line:84%
Nicky, the word has
come to the West Coast,

00:00:31.140 --> 00:00:34.530 align:middle line:84%
of how you shuffled your feet,
stammered, and slipped out

00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:37.860 align:middle line:84%
the back door when
no one was looking.

00:00:37.860 --> 00:00:40.620 align:middle line:90%
What did you have in mind?

00:00:40.620 --> 00:00:44.010 align:middle line:84%
I picture myself back
there in the kitchen,

00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:46.320 align:middle line:84%
peering out through
the glass, then

00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.500 align:middle line:84%
through the orchard, your shirt
a small red dot among the apple

00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:52.230 align:middle line:84%
trees that run down
the long slope.

00:00:52.230 --> 00:00:55.830 align:middle line:84%
The water glitters and
flashes in the cold sunlight.

00:00:55.830 --> 00:01:00.480 align:middle line:84%
I tried to open the window to
tell you to wait, to come back.

00:01:00.480 --> 00:01:03.360 align:middle line:84%
But it is too late,
too late in the day.

00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:05.280 align:middle line:90%
Already the boat is adrift.

00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:06.870 align:middle line:90%
It is on fire.

00:01:06.870 --> 00:01:09.120 align:middle line:84%
The flames splash
at the gunwales.

00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:11.280 align:middle line:90%
And you are smoke, Nicky.

00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.130 align:middle line:90%
You are smoke.