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.