WEBVTT

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I was fortunate enough to
get a long poem published

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in the Best American
Poetry this year,

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which shocked the
heck out of me,

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but I wanted to read you
a little bit of this.

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I don't know why I'm into
these really long poems

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but this is not as long as that.

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So if you're starting to
twitch, I'll be merciful.

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But I thought it was interesting
because it's a poetic bridge

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between my materials.

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I'm so concerned
about all these things

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that are constantly
separating us and breaking us

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apart and setting us
against each other.

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And in this book tour,
I may have mentioned,

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but doing radio call-in shows
in Los Angeles when you've

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written a book praising illegal
immigrants is really a bad idea.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I'll tell you.

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And I start my new book with
a quote by Richard Rodriguez.

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It says, the illegal
immigrant is the prophet.

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He's the bravest and
strongest among us

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and he knows what's happening
long before a California

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suburbanite knows it.

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And the radio guy said
to me, did you ever box?

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And I said, why?

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He said, because you sure
are leading with your chin.

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I thought, oh, man.

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Oh, darn it.

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So I'm desperately
hoping that, if anything,

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I can at least try to lay
out some rudimentary bridges

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between us because I hate
the things that separate us.

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And I think they're mostly
lies, certainly propaganda.

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And one of the experiences I
had when on my macho safaris

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with my dad was the--

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I don't know how to
put this delicately--

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the classic experience of being
taken to a house of ill repute

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as a boy.

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And it was a very
peculiar experience for me

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because I did not
want to be there

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and I was only 12 years old.

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And they had selected somebody
for me who scared me so bad.

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She looked just
like Tina Turner.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But she had tarantulas
for eyelashes.

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These gigantic things.

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And I didn't know how I was
going to get out of this.

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I really didn't.

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Because it was presented to
me as a great noble thing.

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The men have collected the
money for you, you little punk.

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Go do it.

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So we were sitting there and
I was watching this place.

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And one of the fellows confessed
that he was 21 years old

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and had never been with anybody.

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And I leapt to my feet and
made an instant soliloquy.

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Beloved brothers!

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Although this is the
most beautiful gesture

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anyone's ever made for me,
brother Gilbert has never been.

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And so they gave him the
money and sent him off.

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And I got out of it.

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But the more I thought
about this place,

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the more it bothered me.

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It was so rogue-full
and so naughty.

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We were such boys.

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But I thought about the women
in there the more and more I

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thought about it.

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And one Christmas I
was staying down there,

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and I decided to go
back to see this place.

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And it was much more alarming
this time that I was grown up.

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And an old woman
in the town who had

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been the Nina, the sort of
steadying female hand for all

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these wild cousins of mine
when they were little boys, now

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works in an organization helping
these women who do this work.

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And I should have
known from the work

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I was doing in Mexico
what their situation was.

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But the majority of
women working that work

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are, of course, sending
all of their earnings home

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to their children
or their parents

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and working as slaves,
almost, in these places.

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So it made me vividly and
shockingly remember a moment.

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And this is one of
those poems that

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comes directly from Mr.
Anderson's suggestion of ghosts

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of small gestures because one
little tiny moment happened

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and it's bugged me forever.

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That's what this poem is about.

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And it was just
making eye contact

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for one second with somebody.

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So this is that
section of this poem,

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which is called
"Ghost Sickness."

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And this is part 10.

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And then maybe if you want to
chat or something, we can chat.

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Because maybe you might have
some comments or questions.

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I love to hear what
people have to say.

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"Drive mad across town, radio
tuned to sizzle spit mariachi

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howls.

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Drunk, white hat
wolves, six-gun poets,

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bawling pagan
gospels of tequila.

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Love, murder, ruin.

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Six men in a Volkswagen,
uncountable ghosts on the roof

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hung on for dear death.

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Rubber burned on cobbles as we
spun another corner, laughter's

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nasty calliope calling.

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Dog bark, midnight outskirts
of some flyspeck town.

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Cemetery next door to
the whorehouse away where

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the shouts, and the
shooting, and the trumpets,

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and the shatter wake no one.

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Grass shacks lined
the compound where

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the women slept with wash
tubs and TVs, candy, photos,

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cigarettes, radios, memories,
chamber pots, underpants,

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makeup, nightmares,
and one bundle each

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of rubber band letters
from some dream boy who

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went and never came back.

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Dig that sign, Club
Verde Para Hombres.

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Fat cops at the door
touched us all over,

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felt us for .38s .44s and hung
the pistols on pigs by the bar.

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Inside, shaky leg tables
of tin, flaking stickers

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stuck to our forearms, bright
paper freckles, Tecate, Dos

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Equis, Corona, Carta Blanca.

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Concrete dance floor stained
into maps of lost worlds by beer

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spilled by boot heels, by flat
women's sandals and black hair

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dyed orange as cheap boots.

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And in the corner,
rock and roll.

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A blind guitarist followed
the sounds with his head,

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thin as sticks, moved
like a metronome singing,

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all you need is love.

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Love is all you need.

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Love is all you need.

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You can buy it here.

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Unzip your hair,
pull off your skin.

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We watched them dance.

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Farmhands worked
hard at having fun.

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And all those dresses in the
farmer's hands were gone limp,

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wilted by 1,000 palms.

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And we danced with them.

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Love is all-- [AUDIO OUT]

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And one bowl, one woman.

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No exit.

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I saw the crucifix above
her bed and then her.

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Cigarette burns
tattooed her arms.

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Through an open door, I
saw, love is all you need.

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She dipped a knotted
flower rag into her bowl

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and ran the water down her
chest, her neck, her leg.

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Her other leg so tired it shook.

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I knew that hair as thin as mist
uncurled for moistened flesh

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and rose.

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She wiped her nodding
breasts under her dress,

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washed off the heat,
washed off the weight,

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washed off the smell, the
feel, the fingerprints.

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And then looked up.

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I smiled across the
room, embarrassed rogue

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through sheets of smoke.

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And her stare burned
my smile to ash.

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You smile so easily, muchacho.

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You think you offer me
condolences or is this business?

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Do you think you understand?

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Love is all you need.

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You'll never understand until
you lie here 10 or 20 nights

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and dream of home.

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Love is all you need.

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You can spend money
to rest in me.

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I'll carry you,
would you carry me?

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Love is all you need.

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And if we meet at
noon in the town,

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plazuela, you with
your notebooks

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and me with my flowers, always
careful not to greet anybody.

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Love is all you need.

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You will look away, ashamed
of what you put here.

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And I will walk away
out of town the long way

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because the best part you
bought for me was silence.

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Love is all you need.

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Neither one looks
back and then you go.

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But I remain tomorrow and
tomorrow and tomorrow.

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Love is all you need.

00:09:26.780 --> 00:09:30.080 align:middle line:84%
Her lips were smeared the
color of crushed smiles.

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I pointed to my mouth,
she wiped her face.

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The knot of cotton
flowers cleaned her teeth.

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We waved.

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The blind guitarist
shrieking in the corner.

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The twisted Jesus
writhing in his torture.

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The brilliant coin
cascade that hit her bed,

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a dark ranchero pushing in.

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She glanced at me,
her hands at head.

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At heart, sign of the cross.

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The closing door.

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She loves you,
yeah, yeah, yeah."

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00:10:04.241 --> 00:10:04.741 align:middle line:90%
[?

00:10:04.741 --> 00:10:05.642 align:middle line:90%
That one. ?]

00:10:05.642 --> 00:10:07.610 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

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00:10:10.070 --> 00:10:11.054 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:10:11.054 --> 00:10:17.960 align:middle line:90%


00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:19.883 align:middle line:90%
Thank you very much.

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