WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.837 align:middle line:90% St. Vincent's. 00:00:01.837 --> 00:00:05.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.950 --> 00:00:08.980 align:middle line:84% Thinking of rain clouds that rose over the city 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:11.470 align:middle line:90% on the first of the year. 00:00:11.470 --> 00:00:13.540 align:middle line:84% In the same month, I consider that I 00:00:13.540 --> 00:00:16.239 align:middle line:84% have lived daily and with eyes open and ears 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:21.370 align:middle line:84% to hear these years across from St. Vincent's Hospital, above 00:00:21.370 --> 00:00:25.090 align:middle line:90% whose roof, those clouds rose. 00:00:25.090 --> 00:00:28.870 align:middle line:84% Its bricks, by day, a French red under cross facing south, 00:00:28.870 --> 00:00:32.590 align:middle line:84% blown up neoclassic facades, the tall, dark openings 00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:35.380 align:middle line:84% between columns at the dawn of history 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:40.720 align:middle line:84% exploded into many windows in amortized face. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:43.120 align:middle line:84% Inside it, the ambulances have unloaded 00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:47.020 align:middle line:84% after sirens howling nearer through traffic on 7th Avenue. 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:49.420 align:middle line:84% Long ago, I learned not to hear them, 00:00:49.420 --> 00:00:52.480 align:middle line:90% even when the sirens stop. 00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:54.550 align:middle line:90% They turned to back in. 00:00:54.550 --> 00:00:56.800 align:middle line:90% Few passersby stay to look. 00:00:56.800 --> 00:00:59.530 align:middle line:90% And neither do I. 00:00:59.530 --> 00:01:02.650 align:middle line:84% At night, two long blue windows and one short one 00:01:02.650 --> 00:01:05.830 align:middle line:84% on the top floor burn all night, many nights, 00:01:05.830 --> 00:01:08.320 align:middle line:90% when most of the others are out. 00:01:08.320 --> 00:01:12.840 align:middle line:84% On what floor do they have anything? 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.810 align:middle line:84% I have seen the building drift moonlit through geraniums 00:01:15.810 --> 00:01:18.180 align:middle line:84% late at night when trucks were few, 00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:22.600 align:middle line:84% moon just past the full, upper windows, parts of the sky 00:01:22.600 --> 00:01:24.480 align:middle line:90% as long as I looked. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.480 align:middle line:84% I watched it at Christmas and New Year. 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:29.850 align:middle line:84% Early in the morning, I have seen the nurses ride out 00:01:29.850 --> 00:01:32.070 align:middle line:90% through arterial streets. 00:01:32.070 --> 00:01:34.830 align:middle line:84% In the evening, I've noticed interns blocks away 00:01:34.830 --> 00:01:38.550 align:middle line:84% on doorsteps, one foot in the door. 00:01:38.550 --> 00:01:40.080 align:middle line:84% I have come upon the men in gloves 00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:42.240 align:middle line:84% taking out the garbage at all hours, 00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:44.910 align:middle line:84% piling up mountains of plastic bags, 00:01:44.910 --> 00:01:49.080 align:middle line:84% white strata with green intermingled and black. 00:01:49.080 --> 00:01:52.320 align:middle line:84% I have seen one pile catch fire and studied the cloud 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:55.380 align:middle line:84% at the ends of the jets of the hoses. 00:01:55.380 --> 00:01:58.110 align:middle line:84% The fire engines as near as that. 00:01:58.110 --> 00:02:03.510 align:middle line:84% Red beacons and machine throb heard by the whole body. 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:06.840 align:middle line:84% I have noticed molded containers stacked outside the delivery 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:10.350 align:middle line:84% entrance on 12th Street, whether meals from a meal factory 00:02:10.350 --> 00:02:13.020 align:middle line:84% made up with those mummified for long journeys 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:17.410 align:middle line:84% by plane or specimens for laboratory examination sealed 00:02:17.410 --> 00:02:19.410 align:middle line:90% at the prescribed temperatures. 00:02:19.410 --> 00:02:22.620 align:middle line:90% Either way, closed delivery. 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:25.380 align:middle line:84% And approached faces staring from above crutches 00:02:25.380 --> 00:02:28.920 align:middle line:84% or tubular clamps out for tentative walks, 00:02:28.920 --> 00:02:31.500 align:middle line:84% have paused for trickling wheelchairs, 00:02:31.500 --> 00:02:34.440 align:middle line:84% heard visitors talking in wind on each corner, 00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:37.350 align:middle line:84% while the lights changed and hot dogs were handed over 00:02:37.350 --> 00:02:39.570 align:middle line:84% at the curb in the middle of afternoon. 00:02:39.570 --> 00:02:42.090 align:middle line:84% Mustard, ketchup, onions, and relish, 00:02:42.090 --> 00:02:46.650 align:middle line:84% and police smelling of ether and laundry were going back. 00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:50.550 align:middle line:84% And I have known them all less than the papers of our days. 00:02:50.550 --> 00:02:52.320 align:middle line:90% Smoke rises from the chimneys. 00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:53.940 align:middle line:90% Do they have an incinerator? 00:02:53.940 --> 00:02:55.380 align:middle line:90% What for? 00:02:55.380 --> 00:02:57.030 align:middle line:84% How warm do they believe they have 00:02:57.030 --> 00:02:59.880 align:middle line:90% to maintain the air in there? 00:02:59.880 --> 00:03:03.300 align:middle line:84% Several of the windows appear to be made of tin. 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:06.300 align:middle line:84% But it may be the light reflected. 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:09.900 align:middle line:84% I have imagined bees coming and going on those sills, 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:12.510 align:middle line:90% though I have never seen them. 00:03:12.510 --> 00:03:14.400 align:middle line:90% Who was St. Vincent? 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.150 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:17.150 --> 00:04:12.265 align:middle line:90%