[APPLAUSE]
Thank you for that introduction.
I hope I live up to it.
And thank you all for being here.
And thank you to the Poetry Center, to Tyler, to Paola.
Yeah, it's great to be back.
So, yeah, I'm going to be reading from my book The Wet
Wound, which is about the grief I experienced
after the death of my father.
So I want to say, please take care of yourself.
So if you need to cry, cry.
I'm pretty jet-lagged, so it might happen.
If you need to laugh, laugh.
If you need to leave, you'll be welcomed back
if you choose to return.
But before I start, I have a favor to ask.
And I would like you to think of someone that you have lost,
that you would like to bring to this reading.
So I want you to think of that person.
And I'd like you to just tell the person beside you,
their name, and briefly who they were to you.
So think of someone that you have lost,
that you'd like to bring to this reading,
and just tell the person beside you their name,
and briefly who they were to you.
[INAUDIBLE]
[LAUGHTER, CHATTER]
Thank you for that.
And yeah, I would love to hear about who
you brought after the reading.
Obviously, I'm bringing my dad.
And I also want to bring one of the sharpest writers
that I have ever met, Lucy Kirkman, who
would give me feedback in that room right there.
And she helped make this book what it is.