The cover of this book is actually my dad's lighter.
I mean, it's a photo of my dad's lighter.
Yeah.
I had a friend take it, and I kind of--
It's broken?
What's that?
It's broken?
It's broken.
Yeah.
Right now, it's on my mantle in my house.
Yeah.
How are we doing on time?
Did I start at 7:00?
You're doing great.
Good Lord.
Yeah.
Yeah, all right.
It was 7:15.
Yeah.
Was it 7:15?
Thank God.
Yeah.
All right.
I looked at the clock and thought, oh no.
OK, perfect.
Thanks for telling me that.
This one's called "Pomelos."
Do you know that fruit?
Pomelo?
I think it might actually be pronounced "pom-uh-low."
When I was doing the audio book for this book,
the director was like, I don't think that's what it's called.
But she was really cool about it.
She was like, you pronounce it how you want.
And so, I will--
"puh-meh-lows."
And this is sort of after a Natasha Trethewey poem
that I really love called "Myth."
It's a mirror poem, and it starts--
the lines go in one direction, and then they
go in reverse order until the end of the poem.
And it starts with the line--
"I was asleep while you were dying."
And it's about her mom.
And so this poem starts, sort of, with a line like that.
"I think I was in California when you died.
There was a window, the cop said,
But we can't be sure.
Maybe it happened
While K and I were having sneaky sex
Then linking up with friends we missed, friends
from when we used to live there.
Or while getting hammered touring
Our old spots--
Baggy's, Heart
And Dagger, Eli's Mile High-- and we tried
To call it, but when we got back,
The neighbors were still dancing in their
Halloween best so we started swigging
From a plastic handle and sharing cigs
And shout-singing Baby's black balloon
Makes her fly.
Maybe then.
Or when
A bearded man in sequins piggybacked
Our friend and we reached on tiptoe
To pull ripe pomelos from the dark--"
It's weird how important that feels.
You know?
Where was I exactly when he died?
And you don't get to know in a lot of cases.
Right?
You don't get to know.
But it nags at you.